A Study of Venus: Crystal Tokyo
by Iryl
Summary: Kunzite is a closet Venus groupy. Death Phantom has acne. And Venus is playing the role of her life while up on murder charges. [2 new chapters as of January 2006]
1. Wish

**Summary:** Kunzite's a hard-core cop and closet Venus groupy. Minako is dating his partner disguised as a 'normal girl.' Death Phantom has achne. NOT a sequel. CAN stand alone.

**Author's Notes:**

They don't remember anything of the Silver Millennium, so this is a sort of second meeting. That is, they fall in love all over again. I always love how people fall in love, but the relationship afterwards tends to get dull (they're just all lovey-dovey and the lack of conflict tends to draw a flat plot). So, along with the Silver M. version, I'm giving a double-dose of the fall.

Considering I gave Kunzite blue eyes in the Silver Millenium version, I'll attribute his new (correct) grey eyes to a glitch in the reincarnation process. ;;

I would like to credit Elements of Desire for the tone. Her "Memories" stories were really inspiring for my vision of Crystal Tokyo.

**Quotes from Manga:**

"Several centuries ago, on Earth, in Crystal Tokyo, There was a person who revived the crime and murder that people had begun to forget. The Mad Dictator Phantom. He had the Black Crescent symbol on his forehead. Neo-Queen Serenity, who until then, had only watched over the quiet Crystal Tokyo, took a stand that one time. He was captured and sent to Nemesis. And, thereafter, that planet became forbidden. Finally, peace returned, but Black Moon showed up, but this was later." (Endymion)

"Death Phantom. The most vile criminal in the past. He was a psychic with the powers of Demon Hands and the Evil Eye. He destroyed Crystal Tokyo and turned it into a city of violence. It was a horrible era of ruin. Even though he was a psychic, he was still a human, so the Queen couldn't execute him. She feared him, and sent him to the farthest planet of the solar system. Nemesis is a planet cursed by the Phantom." (From File)

------------------------

**Wish**

"Usako."

Her pulse quickened at the intimate whisper and she leaned back into her husband's warmth. How long had it been since she had become Queen? She wasn't sure.

"Usako," Endymion repeated. His chin was on her shoulder and she looked at him in the mirror, trying to put her earrings on at the same time. He wasn't wearing the domino mask and his dark hair fell into wise blue eyes shadowed with worry. "I need something, Usako. A favor."

She frowned; he was being too serious. She turned and kissed him carefully. "Anything, of course. What do you want?"

Instead of speaking, he went to his desk on the other side of the room and pulled out a long, flat box. She recognized it as the one that held his domino mask and didn't understand why he wanted to show it to her. Neo-Queen Serenity moved forward to get a better look. The inside was laid with dark blue velvet – the same color as his eyes – and the white mask sat imperially in a perfect crevasse in the center of the box. But instead of lifting it out, as she expected, Endymion flicked a latch and opened a small, secret compartment, pulling out a silk pouch.

"What is it?" she asked breathlessly.

Endymion poured the contents of the pouch into his white-gloved hand and looked at her. "They were my guards. They never got the chance we had, Usako. They deserve any life I can give them."

She looked at him. "You want me to bring them back."

He held the four stones out to her and she took them, running light fingers over them. "I want to give them the normal lives they never had. I owe them that much."

The Queen smiled at her king, love welling up in her. He was such a good, thoughtful man. She didn't deserve him.

"Can you?" He was anxious.

"I will," she said, kissing him again before turning. "Have the servants bring my dinner here. I will be too tired to come down after I finish this."

"Thank you," he hugged her again, making her smile and fight back a girlish giggle, before she left. Four names ran through his head.

_Kunzite, Nephrite, Jadeite, Zoicite. . . ._


	2. Crumble

**Crumble**

_A Non-Predetermined Number of Years Later. . . ._

A line of smoke wafted through the police station and dispersed, lingering just enough to irritate more sensitive nostrils. The scent of strong coffee almost overpowered the smoke, making the air thick with its presence.

"Augh!" a woman gagged, spitting the black liquid back into its mug. "Who the hell made this coffee!"

"Kunzite," grinned a young man at a desk nearby, typing diligently on his report.

"You could kill _rhinos_ with this stuff!"

The young man's grin widened and he came over, pouring a large mug of the strong brew and setting it aside before dumping two more cups of water into the Coffee-San. "That ought to help," he smiled at the lady, who was pouring her cup into a nearby sink. "You're new here, huh? I'm Jadeite." He shook her hand and nodded toward the percolating Coffee-San. "Most people know to stay clear of this area until Kunzite gets his morning cup."

The woman made a face. "Yeah, I'm Momoko. Now, who the hell is this Kunzite guy that thinks he rules the coffee-maker?"

The young man smiled again – he _did_ have an infectious smile – and handed her the large mug he had poured. "Straight back and by the window. Can't miss him."

The woman looked at the warm item in her hands and shrugged, following the young man's directions.

"Will somebody _please_ kill whoever is smoking!" a young man roared, slamming his pen down on top of some papers. Glaring around briefly with red, puffy eyes, he coughed and grabbed a Kleenex to blow his nose into. Despite the apparent cold he had, and a possible nasty temper, he was a healthy-looking fellow. Tall, even sitting down, with shoulder-length pale hair and sharp grey eyes, he was a broad, tanned, handsome man.

Momoko caught herself and blushed, hoping she hadn't been staring _too_ long.

"Good luck, Kunzite," a young woman next to him replied, smiling sympathetically. "Kevin's going to _die_ with a cigarette in his mouth." She laughed a little, "Probably _because_ of the cigarette in his mouth. Cancer." She was a beautiful woman – long, pale blonde hair pulled back on both sides with small pink ribbons and blue eyes that sparkled with good humor.

"Of course he's going to die with a cigarette in his mouth," the man grated, "in five minutes, if he doesn't put it out."

"K-Kunzite-san?" Momoko asked.

"What?" he snapped without looking up.

She didn't know what to say – just held out the coffee cup.

"Look up, Kunzite," the blonde woman said, giving Momoko a sweet, understanding smile that both warmed Momoko and made fun of Kunzite.

"Wha-? Oh." He saw the coffee and took it with a nod of thanks that wasn't quite unfriendly. "Thank you."

The blonde woman looked up at Momoko and smiled in confidence. "He's always like this before he gets his coffee." She gestured for Momoko to sit and propped her head on her hand as Momoko complied. "You're new? Kunzite's actually pretty agreeable once he gets used to you. I know it's really hard to adjust to a new job the first few days. My name's Kate, what's yours?"

Momoko's head was spinning as she listened to the blonde woman change subjects like lightening. "I'm . . . uh . . . Momohara Momoko. I just joined the police force, and I'm kind of nervous."

"It's nice to meet you, Momo-kun." Kate smiled. "Don't worry about being new – it'll get better really soon. Why, when I was a rookie–"

"Yeah, nice," Kunzite murmured, looking across the office and setting his coffee down. "Excuse me," he stood and left.

Momoko followed him with her eyes, confused.

Kate grinned and stood up. "This happens every morning – come on." She pulled Momoko toward the ladies restroom and, hiding in a small nook where they could overhear Kunzite, the two women peered after the tall fair-haired man.

Kevin was half-reclining in his chair, reading a report with a cigarette hanging negligently between his lips. As Kunzite approached, Kevin lay the report on his desk and glanced up, a cocky grin glinting in his eyes.

"What?" he asked around the smoldering item.

"Put it out," Kunzite grated.

"Yes, sir," Kevin saluted, smiled, and went back to his report, doing nothing about the cigarette.

Kunzite sighed, eyes narrowing, and reached across the desk to nab the cigarette himself, but Kevin avoided him and laughed, blowing smoke at Kunzite, who coughed. "You little . . ."

"Excuse me?"

The voice was honeyed and sweet – bell-like. There was a husky throb in its depths that made both men still in their faux fight. Kevin looked past Kunzite, and Kunzite turned to glance behind himself.

She was tall enough to fit snugly under his chin, with a skirt short enough to make her long, shimmering legs look like they went on for miles and a shirt that showed off an amazing, full, firm chest. Long blonde hair was pulled up in a spiky flip and bright blue eyes supported lashes that seemed almost too long for her silver-blue lids to hold up.

One perfectly heeled foot stepped forward, and the young woman brushed past Kunzite, reaching for Kevin.

"Hey, baby," Kevin said, pulling the young woman close to his body.

"Hi," she replied, pulling his face down to her smiling mouth for a lingering moment. When she pulled back, she gave him a funny look. "Have you been smoking again?"

Kunzite hadn't even noticed Kevin putting out his cigarette.

"So Kunzite," Kevin perked up, "what do you think of my new girlfriend?"

Kunzite was speechless for a moment as the blonde girl trailed her hands over Kevin's shoulders and snuggled into him. Then he remembered his training, thought of a book in his bottom left drawer, and he straightened, becoming stern. With a humorless look, he replied, "Get her out of here. She's distracting the other officers."

It was true. Even the women were looking.

"It's okay, baby," the woman said as Kevin frowned, "I'll see you tonight."

"You'll wear that dress I like?"

"Maybe," she purred, separating from him and turning to go. As she passed the tall, broad, pale, red-nosed hunk of a man who had been about to throttle her new boyfriend when she arrived, she gave him a cheeky wink and strode out of the station, hips swinging in a distinctive lilt.

Outside the front doors, she tripped lightly down the stairs, rounded a corner, and flipped her hair down in one move. It spread around her shoulders, tumbling down her back in a long, full mass of gold. Running slim white fingers through her bangs, the woman slipped a full-length red coat on over her clothing and took off in the direction of the massive crystal formation which stood towering high above all of Crystal Tokyo. The sun was just getting firmly aloft, and it glittered through the faucets of the crystal palace, light dancing and flickering and enchanting as the young blonde woman approached it on the streets of Tokyo, her long red coat flapping slightly behind her, hands deep in its pockets.

People looked at her as she passed – some even stared – but once she was out of sight, she drifted from their minds like a phantom dream. Perhaps she _was_ a phantom. Over a thousand years old, the woman could be anyone – and no one was quite sure who.

She reached the crystal palace and stood in front of two large, beefy, unmovable guards.

"Hi boys."

"State your password," one commanded.

"Your boss," the woman laughed and before the other man could react, she pushed past both of them and slammed open the front doors. One of them clapped the other on the shoulder in a sympathetic gesture. The senshi hadn't used passwords in years, but the men were still required to ask for them.

She strode into the next room and ripped off her red coat, slinging it onto a couch where a woman in a white sun-dress was reading a book. The blonde woman threw herself into the chair across from her.

"I'm too old for this. And I am so _sick_ of this password thing!"

The woman reading put her book down, not fluttering a single dark eyelash at the blonde's outburst. The woman pushed a lock of long, smooth black hair behind one ear, assessing the situation. Warm concern entered her voice. "Minako, what's wrong?"

Minako wrinkled her nose and sighed. "I have to date that _idiot_ cop just to get classified information, and he kisses like a fish! And _smokes_! Ugh! Why can't we just break into the police department files?"

"You know that Ami already has a hack into their system." Rei was the voice of reason. "But they don't keep computer records of this investigation. Even if they did, who would believe it? We're the only ones who deal with this kind of stuff – and deal _effectively_. And you know that the new police chief doesn't want us meddling – that he thinks we're old school and our methods don't work anymore." There was a pause and the two women looked at each other. Blue eyes lingered on dark violet. Rei blinked, finally taking in her friend's clothing. "You look like a whore. Go change." And threw the red coat back to Minako, who burst out laughing.

"I will admit," she said in a loud, happy voice as she left the room, "it's fun pretending to be eighteen again." She winked.

"You could be his _grandmother_ -- five times over!" Rei called after her, but cut off as another figure appeared in the doorway.

"Who?" the girl asked, a curious smile in her dark blue eyes.

Rei blushed and chuckled. "Minako. She has a new boyfriend."

The girl nodded, sitting down and crossing her ankles daintily. "Didn't she just start dating that police officer?"

Rei smiled, her dark hair falling across one pale cheek. "Yes, the informant. She doesn't like him."

An indigo eyebrow quirked. "Why didn't she just find someone on the investigation that she could stand?"

Rei sighed but didn't reply because a maid came in to serve them lunch. When she left, the new girl noticed the book Rei was reading and they talked about it for the rest of the afternoon.

------------------------

"Minako," the young woman paused in the palace hallway and smiled at the man approaching her. She'd just changed into comfortable, _normal_ clothes from her visit to Kevin and was going back to the Senshi's lounge. She began walking again when the man reached her and they dropped into a casual stride. "How are you?"

"Fine, thanks," she nodded, warmth in her voice and face. "And you?"

"Perfect," he took a great, contented breath. "The kingdom's doing well, my family and friends are in good health, and it's a beautiful day." He looked proudly out of a tall, twilit window.

"I'm glad," Minako laughed. "But where is the little princess? I thought she was going to spend the day with you?"

The king nodded, his expression not phased. "She's with her mother. I'm going to join them now for dinner - the ambassador from the Americas is absolutely _ecstatic_ about our new plan." His eyes twinkled down at her and Minako couldn't help but twinkle back. "I appreciate all the time the Senshi spent on it with me. I should do something for you girls." He looked thoughtful.

"Fire the police chief," Minako laughed immediately, not expecting him to take her suggestion seriously.

He didn't, but he grimaced. "I'm really sorry about him. It almost makes me wish I _could_ overrule the people, just in this case. But you know how that would turn out." His mouth was thin. Four hundred years ago, he'd tried to take a judge out of office that had been badmouthing the queen, but the public outcry was so strong against him that he'd had to let her stay. The people hadn't liked the judge much before that, either, but the show of imperial force had turned their favor to the judge for no other reason than a powerful reaction against monarchial strong-arming.

Minako put a hand on her king's arm and smiled sympathetically into his face. "We'll survive. It's not like we haven't been hated before."

"Not so publically," he looked down at her hand and blinked at the bracelet she wore. Taking her hand in his, he examined the jewelry. It was silver and crystal and connected to both ends of a thin, inch-long charm - a tiny, delicate, crystalized sword. "Ami never did explain how you two got this to work."

Minako was all bright smiles again. "Rei helped too." She stepped back and clenched her fist. When she released the harsh grip, there was a long, shimmering crystal sword in her hand. "It requires a little physical _and_ mental exertion. That way it doesn't appear on its own. Kind of like Haruka's, but she keeps hers in subspace. Mine's always physically with me."

He smiled and started walking again. "That still doesn't explain it."

"Well ask Ami next time," she grumbled and half pouted. "You know I'm a ditz."

He laughed and ruffled her hair. "I will."

------------------------

"Will you close up, Kunzite?" Kate asked, putting on her coat. "I promised to show Momoko where the doughnut place is." The latter lady walked up behind Kate, her dark violet hair pulled severely up and cocooned in a white bun-bonnet.

"Sure, Kate." Kunzite nodded, pouring over his paperwork so intently that it made the women wonder if he'd even heard the request. Shrugging, they grabbed their purses and left the station.

Alone, all the lights in the station out except for the small lamp on his desk and the glowing monitor of his computer, Kunzite sighed and leaned back in his chair, arching his back and stretching his arms far over his head in a catlike move. "Ah," he sighed, relaxing again and mopping at his shiny nose with a fresh tissue. He glanced behind him, past Kate's desk, and out the tall window. A streetlight to the right of the window made a small puddle of light slant across the station floor. The shadows deepened and Kunzite shivered involuntarily. There was a slightly sinister flavor to being alone in a dark police station at night.

Frowning at himself and sighing, Kunzite reached down and drew open his bottom left drawer, lifting out a heavy leather-bound volume and placing it squarely on top of his paperwork. Finding his blue cloth bookmark, Kunzite flipped open the volume and scanned the marked page.

". . . and thus the Sailor Senshi defeated Sailor Galaxia and saved Earth. Thereafter, King Endymion was returned and renewed to power, then only Prince Endymion. Queen Serenity, at this time only Princess Serenity, and her loyal Sailor Senshi bid goodbye to the elusive Senshi, the Sailor Starlights, and their princess, Kakyuu, who then returned to their home world.

"The coronation of Queen Serenity was six years later, the year of the crystal. At this time, danger to the Earth halted and it was safe for the Queen and her Senshi to establish monarchy. In the royal coronation party were the exalted Queen Neo-Serenity and King Endymion, the Inner Senshi(1) and the Outer Senshi(2). The Inner Senshi remain in the palace today, protecting their king and queen even unto possible death. The Outer Senshi faded from public sight soon after the coronation and all attempts to locate them failed. Hypotheses were made, but the most popular among the people of Crystal Tokyo was that the Outer Senshi were released of duty and retired to live long, happy lives.

"The Inner Senshi consist of four women, each dedicated solely to her King and Queen. Each Senshi has a particular object and talent _See_: Chapter Four, for Senshi Profiles, and in peacetime help to run the palace. Recently, since the Neo-Princess Serenity's birth, the Senshi have . . ."

Footnote: (1) Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus. See Inner Senshi with Naru.

Footnote: (2) Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Pluto. See Mysterious Ways of the Outer Senshi.

Kunzite stopped reading and flipped to Chapter Four. He ran his finger down the rough, brittle page, and stopped by a fancy gold-script title and a rather blurry image of a blonde woman high-kicking a grey, lumpy monster.

". . . Sailor Venus is the leader of the Inner Senshi, Princess Serenity's (_Neo-Queen Serenity, see p.43_) protectors. As the leader, Sailor Venus is entrusted with the legendary Silver Crystal Sword, an emblem of her authority and power.

"The Senshi of love and beauty, Sailor Venus is reportedly one of the most beautiful women in Tokyo, near or equal even to the beauty of the Queen herself. . . ."

He skipped down beneath all of the other profiles.

". . . Nothing is known of the Sailor Senshi as human beings and women. It is not even sure that the Sailor Senshi _are_ women. Some have hypothesized that they are small, slender men. Others believe that they are aliens with magical properties that they have not yet shown (such as invisibility, telekinesis, telepathy, or shape-changing)(1). Still others believe that the Sailor Senshi are goddesses and should be worshiped as such.

"Some of these hypotheses are due to the fact that the Sailor Senshi are publicly elusive, and photographs taken of the Senshi tend to be excessively obscure (the image to the left is reportedly the best photograph ever made of any of the senshi). These mysterious women might be as enigmatic as beings come, but there is one thing that is agreed upon by all: Earth would not be what it is without them."

Footnote: (1) See Barron's Big Book of Senshi Legends.

Kunzite closed the book, sighed, and looked at the clock on his desk. His computer screen had long since fallen to a screen saver, washing through images of cats and purring kittens – Kate had changed it on him again.

Chuckling to himself, Kunzite shut his computer down and gathered his papers together, putting the book carefully back in his bottom left desk drawer. Shrugging on his coat, he picked up the file of the case he was working on and turned off his lamp.

Only the streetlight in the window behind him lighted the room as Kunzite crossed it and locked the station behind himself.

------------------------

Phil was just out for a walk. Really. A walk. He wasn't hurting anybody, he was just enjoying the nice, pleasant night air, the plump full moon, and the security of Tokyo's tall, tall buildings filled with night watchmen rising around him.

Not that the night watchmen really had anything to watch out for. Tokyo was the safest city on earth and there hadn't been any real crime in eighty years. A waste of money in Phil's mind. But then, it was late and the night air was going to his head, making him flippant, carefree.

So he started to skip. No harm in that. Skipping down the sidewalk. No muggers to worry about, after all. Especially not in this part of town, the better part of town. Skipping wasn't against the law. _Although . . ._ he slowed down and looked around. _People might fancy him some kind of sissy if he skipped. Better not skip._ He took slow, deliberate steps. Phil knew those people. Those night watchmen. They watched him. They watched and laughed at his skipping -- at how sissy he was.

Phil stopped and looked up at a particularly tall building. _He wasn't a sissy. He wasn't! And they couldn't laugh at him for it. . . . Could they? They could. They could laugh at him and poke him and throw fruit, just like those kids in school, those kids that were afraid of Phil, afraid of what he could tell them._

"One and one is two, buckle my shoe, or I'll tell Mary Sue what you dreamt of her last night," Phil chanted softly, lifting one foot and hopping a little, staring up at the building, the tall, tall building. . . . "One and two is three, stop thinking that of me, or I'll tell your dear old mommy the dirty dreams you have." He walked toward the front doors, still staring up, up at the tall building. "One and two is three, I know what you think of me." Phil's face was red and squished up in anger. He could see the kids, the taunting kids, the fearful kids, throwing fruit, fruit, fruit, and chanting. They were hanging out the windows of that building, hanging out the windows and taunting him, hanging out the windows and throwing fruit.

In the darkness, a symbol appeared on Phil's forehead -- a symbol that drank up the darkness, a twisted parody of the royal family's symbol. A dark symbol. And with that symbol, his hands grew and morphed, became as dark and twisted as the mark on his brow.

Phil touched the building almost reverently, looking up at the jeering faces hanging out of the windows. "Three and three is six, you're nothing more than sticks." The building gave a great groan and Phil giggled, turning and skipping down the sidewalk. The darkness around his hands and the mark on his brow began to fade, but he didn't turn or look as the building behind him began to fall.


	3. Mystery

**Mystery**

Kunzite was driving to work when his cell phone rang. When he picked up, his captain told him to meet him in the downtown business district of Tokyo by the International Tech building. Curious, Kunzite followed orders and soon found himself in slow traffic. There was a policeman redirecting the cars. Kunzite followed through and parked at the nearest available spot, then got out and walked back to the scene. Flashing his badge when appropriate, Kunzite made his way to the International Tech building.

"My God," he muttered, looking at the cleanup effort two blocks further down and popping a cough drop in his mouth. His cold was still giving him trouble. "How did that happen?"

"We don't know," Kevin answered him, shrugging. "But it's our job to find out."

Kunzite frowned.

"So you boys are the ones on this 'mystical mystery,' eh?" a tall, greying man asked. He didn't wait for an answer, but turned to their captain. "I want a thorough investigation on this, John. I have a reputation to uphold, and I need this kind of thing taken care of quickly and efficiently." He shook a knotted finger.

"You got it, Henry," the captain replied, nodding.

"Good. Go to it, boys," the chief nodded and left.

Kunzite sighed and Kevin lit a cigarette. Soon they were trudging around the debris of the fallen building, ignoring the clean-up effort and wondering at the enormity of their task. Kunzite bent down, rubber gloves on, and scooped some of the abundant dust into a little plastic baggy for analysis later. He sighed and put it in his pocket.

"Was anyone hurt in the incident?" he heard Kevin questioning the building's owner, who had come down to see what had happened. Night guards in the other buildings had heard the collapse and called it in to 911.

"Some guards were killed, apparently," the man answered, running a hand through his hair. He looked a little skittish, Kunzite noted. What was his name again? Urawa? Urawa Ryo. Hm. He could check into that angle – the insurance would probably be hefty.

Kunzite looked back and saw a news crew nearby. He frowned.

Striding over, he approached a woman who looked important. She glanced up and saw him coming -- and a change came over her. Her eyes went round and blue, her mouth softened, and she reached up to smooth her hair. Kunzite fought back a smirk. He was seven hundred years old and still looked twenty-five.

_The miracle crystal of Crystal Tokyo,_ he thought.

"Hi," she breathed.

"Ma'am, you're going to have to move your crew back . . ." he measured with his thumb, "about thirty yards, thanks." With that, he turned and went back to Kevin. He could almost _feel_ the woman's stunned gaze on his back.

"Kev," Kunzite began, surveying the wreckage and trying to think of where to start, "we're going to have to . . ." he broke off, looking at something strange. There was something moving farther in the wreckage, causing the dust to shift and tumble.

"What's going on?" someone asked, and Kunzite turned to look. It was Kevin's cupcake of a girlfriend.

He frowned. "How'd you--" but was cut off by her shrill scream. She was staring at the shifting pile of rubble, which had burst and revealed --

"_A monster!_" she shrieked and ran off, clean-up workers following suit.

Kunzite cursed silly women under his breath and pulled out his gun, planning to unload a clip into the thing's skull. Kevin had obviously gotten the same idea, because he was currently discharging his weapon in rapid succession.

But the creature lunged and took Kevin down with the weight of its own body so that Kunzite had to stop shooting for fear of harming his partner. Instead, he rammed the butt of his gun into the thing's spine and tried to kick it off of Kevin. He had intended to hurt it, but it seemed that he just made it mad, because the creature reared up and snapped at him. Kunzite just managed to stumble out of the way, when . . .

"Mars Flame Sniper!" A line of fire shot through the air and pierced the monster in the shoulder. Kunzite fell back, but had enough mind to try and drag Kevin out of the line of fire. It seemed that the creature's weight had been enough to knock Kevin unconscious.

Then Kunzite's mind began to catch up with him. _Mars?_ "The Sailor Scouts!" he whispered, looking toward the origin of the voice. But what he saw, he wasn't prepared for.

"With the magical armor of glory, we will take your filthy hide back to where it belongs!" A female voice came from the figure that stepped forward, but otherwise it would have been hard to tell the gender. The person was clad completely -- head to toe -- in a black body suit, like armor or space-gear, complete with an opaque-faced helmet. There were three copies of the figure behind her and, besides height, the only distinguishing feature of the suits were the symbols on the front. The one who had spoken had the flaming red symbol of Mars. Behind her was a shorter person with the ice-blue symbol of Mercury. The tall figure had the leaf-green symbol of Jupiter. And the last, the figure fussily checking that her left glove was on properly, sported the glittering gold symbol of Venus.

Venus. Kunzite stared. These were the Sailor Senshi. Right in front of him. And Venus. Kunzite had never admitted it to anyone -- though he thought Kate knew from snooping in his desk drawers -- but he had always been somewhat obsessed with Sailor Venus. It was just that she was the leader, he thought, and he was always craving new information and theories on her. He'd had magazine articles with fuzzy pictures of her (usually leaving the site of a battle, so mysterious and blurred that Bigfoot would be jealous) in his desk drawer with his _History of the Royal Family and Their Guardians_, but moved them out when he started to suspect Kate's snooping.

"It's the body of a human, taken over by a dark force! The human is nonretrievable!" Kunzite looked at Sailor Mercury, who was typing away on a small computer. He wondered how she could do that when her black gloves were so big and cumbersome, but didn't have time to ponder it as something slammed into him from behind and he went tumbling onto his partner, twisting enough to see the gaping, slimy mouth that opened and descended on him. For all Mercury said this thing was human, it sure had sharp teeth!

Before he could even try and twist his gun-hand out from under him, a line of fire shot through the monster's skull. Bits of the creature fell onto Kunzite, splattering onto his face and getting in his hair. The rest of its body slumped and Kunzite shoved it off of him in disgust. He sat up just in time to see the Senshi team gang up on the second monster. The thing wailed pitifully as its arm was burnt off by Jupiter's lightening, and then made a surprise leap at Sailor Mercury. The other three rushed to her aide and Kunzite gasped as three more monsters rose up and knocked each black-armored woman back. One rose up over Sailor Venus' sprawling form and Kunzite brought his gun up, ready to blow the thing's head off, but a cameraman, trying desperately to get footage of the fight, got in his line of sight.

Kunzite cursed and lowered his gun, wishing he really _could_ shoot the cameraman.

The Sailor Senshi soon gained the upper hand and made short work of the monsters, though – Jupiter pitching a disk of sizzling energy through both hers and Venus'. Kunzite watched the fight end in a dazzling display of magic, Venus roping the last two injured creatures with a chain she had around her waist and holding them as Mars burnt the pair to ashes.

Mercury was typing again on her handheld computer, glancing up every now and then to survey the rubble. It was a moment before she realized that a cameraman was videotaping her. Stiffening, she pointed him out to the other Senshi.

And then Kunzite gasped at the swift convergence of all four Senshi on the man. Venus and Mars held him as Jupiter took the camera from him and Mercury looked intently over it. After a moment, she pushed a few buttons and the machine whirred and popped a video up at her. Mercury picked the video gingerly out as the man protested and struggled. Jupiter handed him his camera as Mercury stepped away with the video, all of them letting the man go.

Turning, they ran into the alley and disappeared.

------------------------

"Kevin?" Kunzite turned to see Kevin's girlfriend standing a few feet away. Her hair was slightly mussed, the wind picking up strands and tossing them about her. Kunzite was caught by her beauty. Her eyes were gentle and worried – hands clasped and pressed against her bosom.

She was the perfect imitation of troubled femininity.

"Kevin!" she gasped, dropping to her knees in genuine concern. She touched a cut on his head gingerly, looking at the bruises and glancing down his body for any other visible injuries. As she was kneeling across from Kunzite, he started to notice her clothing. Her shirt was tight, white, and showed her midriff – and as she was bent over Kevin, Kunzite was getting an eyeful of cleavage.

When she shifted, running her hands over Kevin's chest, worried, the slit in her skirt felt open and Kunzite got flashed with a liberal amount of thigh.

"Oh, geez," he breathed, flushing and turning away. Catching sight of an ambulance just pulling up, Kunzite stood and waved to them, ignoring Kevin's girlfriend until they got to them.

When he finally turned back to glance across the paramedics tending to Kevin, the girl was looking at him, laughter in her glance. She must have noticed his reaction. Kunzite's expression froze into a glare and she flushed a little, looking away.

Kunzite told the paramedics to call him if anything else was needed. Otherwise, he was going back to the station to make a report.

He didn't look back as he left.

------------------------

Minako got back to the castle later that afternoon. She tossed her jacket to one of the servants and went upstairs, finding the other Senshi in the common room. It was a big room with lots of comfortable couches and a TV/VCR set at one end. The Senshi were watching the video they had confiscated from the cameraman.

"Those suits really do make us look fat," Makoto was saying.

"It's not the suits, Mako, it's your cooking," Rei replied, and Makoto glared at her. "It's a compliment," she insisted.

Ami was calm and practical, eyes on the screen. "They protect us from most types of acid and projectiles, so they'll do." She cocked her head to the side. "You know, we could probably learn something from video taping ourselves and watching it for research purposes. See what we're doing wrong."

Rei ignored this last comment, addressing the first one. "You really do love those suits too much, Ami."

"You should marry them," Makoto put in. She just got a slitted, unimpressed look and then was ignored.

They turned the video down and flicked on a lamp when Minako sat down.

She slipped her shoes off and put her stockinged feet up on the coffee table. The camera rounded to show Kevin lying flat on the ground, unconscious, with Kunzite hovering over him, and she felt a twinge of pity. "Kevin's a gross, perverted chain-smoker, but I really felt lousy seeing him hurt and bleeding like that."

"Is he okay now?" Ami asked, her brow creased in worry. She was sunk deep into the tan cushions of the couch, a glass of milk and plate of cookies in front of her on the coffee table. Makoto made them, Minako supposed.

"He'll be fine. He just has a knot on his head and I promised to go see him at home later tonight." Minako wiggled her toes and grabbed a cookie.

Makoto raised an eyebrow and smirked. "And what will you _do_ at his place later tonight?"

Minako glared at her, but the effect was spoiled by the cookie in her mouth. She chewed and swallowed. "I'm going to do what I always do. Nothing."

"Come on, Minako," Makoto pushed, moving to sit right next to Minako. They sank together in the soft cushions and Minako laughed. "What do you do with that guy? You said yourself he was a pervert – what's the deal with you two?"

Minako sighed and reached for another cookie. "I let him tell people whatever he wants, and he doesn't make me do things I don't want to."

Makoto's eyebrows rose and she smirked. "So his friends think you're a slut. That's great."

"Thanks, Mako," Minako slumped and pouted. "You know, all we really do is cuddle. It's really nothing bad."

"What I wouldn't give to just be able to do _that_."

There was silence. "You . . . could," Minako offered hesitantly.

"Oh, and where would we find the time? Anyway, I'd feel like I was dating a child. We're _hundreds_ of years older than anyone in this city!"

"Mm," Minako agreed, leaning back and closing her eyes. The couch was so comfortable . . . "Wake me up at seven," she muttered, and went to sleep on Makoto's shoulder.

------------------------

Minako stood outside of Kevin's door later that night. She waited for him to answer her knock and pulled her coat closer around her, despite the fact that she'd changed into warmer clothing. This was a fair apartment building, as they went. No rats, but the owner really needed to buy a better stain cleaner. The walls were a dirty yellow, chipped, scuffed, and boasted long-dried wet spots.

The door opened and Minako smiled, embracing Kevin and kissing his forehead gently. "How are you feeling, baby?" She slipped in past him and took her coat off. The TV was on.

'I intend to take care of the reemerging monster infestation of Tokyo. My police force will be trained to handle any kind of disturbance.'

'Police Chief Harris,' a reporter was saying, 'what would you have to say to the Sailor Scouts, who have previously handled such threats? What do you have to say about their interference with police procedures earlier today?'

'Well, Sara, the Sailor Senshi are beyond their prime. They're old, they're done, and it's time now for a new force to fight menaces to society. They need _armor_ to protect themselves – I had two unprotected men out there soften up a monster with just their guns. The Sailor Senshi just came at the last moment, struck the final blow, and claimed the glory!

'And when it comes to interfering in police business, they should be arrested. They got one of my policemen hurt today, and it won't be long until their fumbling gets one of my men killed!' Minako frowned at the TV, not paying attention as Kevin came up behind her.

'The Sailor Senshi have a wide following, yet you still claim that your official position is against them. Do you think that this may cause a problem in the way society views you and respects your police force?'

'I think that the Sailor Senshi need to keep to their own purpose – protecting the Queen – and leave protecting Tokyo to us.'

'Thank you, Chief Harris.' The newscast went on to other matters.

Minako sighed and turned the TV off. Kevin was making them some tea, since she'd seemed so intent on the show, and Minako watched him for a moment, arms around herself as if she were cold.

He brought her the tea and they sat down together on the sofa, his arm around her shoulders.

"You didn't get hurt today, did you?" he asked, arm tightening.

"No," she murmured, bringing her tea up to her mouth. When her throat was clear, she looked up at him. "How's your head? Does it still hurt?" She was genuinely concerned – she hated seeing anyone in pain.

"It's a little better. The doctor said this tea would help it, though. It's supposed to be soothing – that kind of crap." He shrugged and sipped at his tea. It was still too hot.

The microwave beeped with their popcorn.

"I'll get it," she told him, and stood up, setting her cup of tea on a nearby table. As she turned, Kevin caught her hand and she found herself looking into his eyes.

"Thank you," he said, and his expression was so infinitely tender and gentle, Minako could barely believe it. She was speechless.

It was much later that night when Minako left to walk home. It had been a surprisingly sweet visit – she and Kevin had only watched TV and spoken softly.

As she left the apartment building, Minako wondered if her clothing had done anything to aid the changed mood. She had dressed much more conservatively than usual – instead of the clothes Kevin tended to like, she had chosen soft pants and a light pale blue sweater that was a little bit big on her. But it was all very comfortable, and that was what Minako had gone for.

It had started raining by the time she reached the bottom of the stairs in front of the apartment building – just cool, fat rain drops. She looked up and held her jacket tighter, hoping she could make it back to the palace before it soaked through to her skin.

To get home, she had to pass by the business district. Not through it, but close enough to make her feel nervous. Those monsters and that collapsed building – well, the rubble wasn't all cleared yet and there might be other things lurking in there. Other things that came out at night and liked the taste of beautiful blonde females.

She looked up at a shop sign and shivered, shrugging deeper into her coat against the wet. All the shops were closed by now, and those that weren't were in another part of Tokyo. So she was, essentially, alone.

With thoughts of evil monsters swimming through her mind, it was natural that she shrieked when someone grabbed her roughly by the arm and pulled her into the dark alley between two buildings.

"Do what we tell you and no one will get hurt," the guy said, pointing a knife at her white throat in the darkness.

She'd been so worried about monsters that she hadn't thought about human threats – though she had no real reason to. There hadn't been any notable crime in decades. The police force had softened and become, generally, a joke. That was the reputation that the present police chief fought – and Minako would probably sympathize if he hadn't decided to attack the Sailor Senshi's capabilities in his campaign.

"Please," she said as he and his friend shoved her against the side of a building and pressed the knife close. The water running down the side of the building was soaking into her clothes and probably staining them. "Please, what do you want?" She was going over in her head how to get away from these men without killing either of them. Killing was generally frowned upon, and she didn't want to give the police chief anything else to insult the Senshi with.

"Your money, first," the first guy said, pressing way too close for her taste.

She wrinkled her nose, as much against the water that was running down it as his breath, and gasped out, "I have none."

The other guy cursed and wrenched her away from his friend, hitting her hard across the face and shoving her to the ground. She cried out more in surprise than pain and looked up, seeing her chance to send a snap kick to the friend's wrist, knocking the knife out of it – but before she could move, a voice cut through the scene.

"_Stop! Police!_" The commanding bass reverberated through the alley and Minako's eyes widened. A police officer? At _this_ time of night? She knew, by Ami's hacking and the general local gossip, that they all went home around six or seven because of the low crime rate. The emergency police phone line had barely been used in years, so that they had converted it to go right to the local captain's house instead of the police station.

Thunder broke the sky and her assailants were frozen in between her and the policeman. But right after a flash of lightning, one of them darted toward her, probably preparing to put her in front of him while he escaped – but a shot rang out, muffled by the now-violent rain, and he dropped in pain, purpose forgotten.

The other one dropped his knife and held his hands up, not pretending to be brave or do anything foolish. After the first one was properly handcuffed and the second rolled over, Minako saw that his left knee was a bloody mess. The policeman confiscated the weapons and put both the cuffed men by the corner of the building, cuffing them together with a third set for extra protection. She saw the point in that – if one couldn't even walk, the other couldn't run while attached to him.

And then he turned and knelt by her and asked gently if she was hurt anywhere, and if she could walk. And in a bolt of lightning, Minako recognized him as Kevin's partner – his tall, tanned, gorgeous partner – and could only nod at him, her voice completely gone.

He helped her up and picked up his umbrella from where he'd dropped it. His hair was now dusted with a thick layer of rain that would soak through quickly once he tried to dry it, but he didn't seem to care, as he handed her the umbrella and prodded the two men before him, driving them toward the police station. It was very slow, as one of them was injured, but Kevin's partner was quite patient and didn't complain. The only times he spoke the whole time they were walking was to ask Minako repeatedly if she was okay.

At the police station, the man read the two men their rights (there was a small pamphlet by the cells in case of an arrest) and left Minako at one of the many desks in the room. They were all the same size and plain style. Tall, made of thick wood, with two drawers on either side. No frills or carvings except for ink and coffee stains. Each desk had a computer, though all monitors were dark, staring at her with blank animosity. The room was dimly lighted, as the policeman had only turned on the lights to show the way to the jail cells and forgotten to light the rest of the building. This seemed to be the main room, and there was an office to her right. She faced the entrance that he had locked behind them, just in case.

There were also name-plates on each desk, and she stood and bent over to read "Detective Kunzite."

The clang and screech of metal on metal reverberated through a doorway to her left – muffled by the walls in between. After a period of time that made Minako very nervous, Kunzite returned, carrying some towels.

He handed them to her and stood by the desk as she draped her sopping coat over the back of the chair she was in and wrapped her hair up in a towel.

"An ambulance is on its way, as well as my captain. That one man needs medical help." He had the decency to look concerned about the man, then sighed and shook his head, disturbed. "This is the first crime I've seen in this city in months. Before last year, I'd say it's the first I've seen in years. Things have been so peaceful."

"Thanks to the queen," Minako murmured, pride flashing briefly in her eyes.

"God bless Queen Serenity," he agreed. There was a moment of silence and he resumed business. "You'll need to make a statement and tell us everything that happened. After you do, I'll have a black-and-white drive you home." He knelt down beside her and opened a drawer, pulling out some papers. "We might as well get started now." He grabbed a pencil and handed her the form. "Fill out that top part, could you?"

Name:

Day Phone:

Home Phone:

Address:

Minako looked blankly at the paper but didn't have a chance to say anything as the ambulance arrived. What was she going to do about a phone number and address? She watched Kunzite greet the paramedics and lead them to the back where the injured man was. Biting her lip, she recognized a few very important things: she couldn't tell them she lived at the palace without compromising her identity (Kevin thought she was a private secretary on the other side of town), and she had no alternate information to give them. So she needed to get out of there quickly and find another way home.

Her acting skills came quickly to the fore as she heard Kunzite returning. She slumped into the chair and put her head in her hands, holding it tightly as if in pain. The pencil rolled to the floor, but she didn't bother to pick it back up.

"Are you okay?" Kunzite asked, approaching her with concern.

Minako raised her head and blinked at him, then shook her head. "No, I'm fine." She tried to stand – and stumbled as if struck by a dizzy spell, falling into Kunzite, who caught her shoulders and helped steady her.

"You're not fine," he remonstrated, frowning. "I should have one of the paramedics look over you. Sit back down," he helped her back into the chair and waved one of the men over.

"What are you feeling, dizziness?" the paramedic asked. She nodded. "Did you hit your head?" He flashed a light in her eyes, examining them.

"Not very hard. They pushed me down . . ." She played up the weakness and fear. She was one helluva little actress, if she did say so herself.

The paramedic sighed and nodded. "Even a slight blow to the head can cause problems if you hit it right." He had her bend forward and felt lightly over her scalp, asking her to tell him where it hurt.

"Near the back," she murmured and groaned. "The whole area aches."

He sighed again and took his hands away, scratching his neck and looking up at Kunzite. "I think I'd like to get her over at the hospital and run some tests, to make sure there's no lasting damage. I'm a little nervous about her having a concussion right now . . ." Minako glanced at him with eyes full of tears from the "pain."

Hospitals meant more paperwork.

"No," she protested, "I'll just call a friend to come get me. I'll be fine." She looked up at them with sweet, suffering, brave eyes and the wide neck of her sweater slipped a little to bare one shoulder. She was the ultimate sexy little victim.

Minako was _very_ good at playing the ultimate. The only trouble would come if someone decided that her performances were a little _too_ perfect.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Minako," Kunzite said, kneeling in front of her and taking her hand. He was being very gentle, and Minako was surprised that he knew her name. Most men were too interested in the performance she gave them and the cleavage she showed to pay any attention to her name – and that was the point of it most of the time. For them to remember her physically, but forget any information about her that may have been offered.

But Kunzite seemed to be very perceptive. She would have to remember that.

"No, I'm fine," she replied with a brave smile. "Really. I'll stay up for a few more hours in case I have a concussion, and I'll go to the hospital tomorrow." She looked at him with big, blue, pleading eyes, "I'm just _so_ tired – and that whole ordeal . . ." she lowered her eyes as if to hide from them. "I've never been mugged before," she pressed her hand to her mouth and let out a sob, tears escaping from underneath her lashes. Kunzite's arms came around her in a comforting movement, and she clung to him. "I just don't think I could handle anything else tonight."

"It's okay, it's okay," he murmured, rubbing her back. "You don't have to go anywhere else tonight. I'll take you home myself, if you want."

"No," she murmured into his shoulder. "My friend can pick me up. It won't be any trouble." He drew back and started to protest, but she stopped him. "You need to stay here and take care of business."

"She's right," someone said from behind her. Minako was startled and turned to stare at a young man with a sweet smile and bright blue eyes. He stepped forward and shook her hand. "I'm Officer Jadeite. I'm taking Kevin's place until he gets better."

She frowned. "Kevin's not working right now?" That put a glitch in things.

"Since he's injured, he's gotten some time off. Just until the doctor says he's well enough to get out again." Kunzite looked at her oddly. "Didn't he tell you that?"

"No," she was honestly confused. "I just came from his place – I was walking home from there, actually – and he hadn't said a thing about it." She frowned and they didn't bother her. Finally, though, she shook herself and got her cell phone out of her coat. It was, essentially, a real phone, but there were six colored, plain buttons on the top row. White for the queen, yellow for Venus, blue for Mercury, green for Jupiter, and red for Mars. There was also a black one for the official castle phone line.

She pushed the red one and slipped back into her act.

_'Hello?'_

"Hey Rei," she attempted to sound as pathetic as she looked. "Don't panic, but . . . I was mugged."

Silence. _'Are you . . .'_ She could almost hear Rei thinking "Are the muggers okay?"

"I'm at the police station. I wasn't hurt. Kevin's partner, Detective Kunzite, was walking by. He saved my life." He saved _their_ lives.

_'I'll be there in five minutes.'_

Minako smiled, but weakly. "I knew I could count on you. Thanks."

Kunzite watched her hang up.

"My roommate," she explained when she caught his eye. He only nodded and sighed, as if she should have let him drive her home, and he doubted the safety of her roommate's company.

"So you're Kevin's girlfriend, right?" Officer Jadeite pulled a chair up beside Minako and smiled sweetly, handing her a small cup of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. When she glanced at him in surprise, he said, "Kate had a stash in the fridge. I didn't figure she'd mind if we borrowed two." He twirled his plastic spoon and dug heartily into his own cup. Minako looked at him for a moment, startled, and then smiled widely, laughing a little. She followed his lead and ate the ice cream with gusto. They chatted a little between bites, laughing and smiling together. Kunzite, watching them, frowned darkly to himself, but rationalized that his discomfort was just because of Kevin's right to her.

And then the front doors swung open and Hino Rei walked through them. Breezed through them. _Strode_ through them. Her hair fluttered out behind her and she wore a red tailored skirt suit that emphasized her slim beauty. Black heels clicked their way through the office, her appearance making everyone pause briefly in their work. Her lips were red, her skin was pale and smooth, her nose was graceful, her hair long and glossy black, and her eyes – her deep, thickly lashed, beautiful Japanese eyes – were unamused.

She stopped by Minako. Put one hand on her hip and looked down at her.

"You got mugged."

Minako swallowed her mouthful of ice cream and put her spoon down. "Yes."

Rei sighed and nodded, tossing her hair negligently.

Minako stood, putting her ice cream down. "This is Detective Kunzite," she introduced, Rei turning to look down at the man sitting behind her. "He stopped the muggers."

"Detective," she greeted coolly, holding out a slim white hand. She looked like a sleek and elegant business woman. He gripped her hand and shook it firmly. "Thank you for your services."

"And this is Officer Jadeite," she said, biting back the words screaming through her mind, that he was replacing Kevin and that they had a _big_ problem.

And then she glanced at Jadeite as Rei touched his hand and knew that it wouldn't be so hard to fix.

He was as dazzled by her beauty as hundreds of other men had been throughout her life, the plastic spoon in his free hand dripping ice cream onto his pants. His lips were parted and he swallowed when she let gracefully go of him.

_Bingo,_ Minako almost smiled.

Out on the front steps, Rei sighed. "You got _mugged_. What were you thinking!"

Minako bristled. "I was _thinking_ how much I didn't want to kill them -- besides, they had a knife to my throat. By the time I had a good chance to disarm them, that detective was waving his gun around and yelling for them to put their weapons down. I couldn't exactly play Sailor Soldier around him."

Rei said nothing, only tossed her hair over her shoulder and unlocked her car. It was a sleek, shiny black thing that glittered with money.

"Besides, we have more important things to consider right now," Minako turned serious as she slipped in the car. "Kevin's no good anymore for our inside source -- Officer Jadeite is taking his place while he's wounded."

"That creates a problem," Rei agreed, starting her car and pulling out of the parking lot.

Minako grinned. "But Officer Jadeite thinks you're hot -- so we're not at such an impasse after all."

Rei frowned at her, starting to worry. "What? Minako . . ."

"You're going to graciously let me set you up with him." Minako sat back and smirked, ignoring the tension in Rei's hands on the wheel.

"No." Her lips were thinned and her back was rigid.

Minako's voice softened. "Yes, Rei. You only need to go out with him until Kevin gets better. Then I'll take over again."

"Get Makoto to do it -- she's dying for a little romance."

Minako sighed. "We already know he likes _you_. Just do this, okay?"

Rei sighed and shook her head. "Was there ever any doubt I would?" she asked softly, watching the road.

"No," Minako replied, smiling. No, Rei never went against her duties, even if she didn't like them.

They rode in silence to the palace.


	4. Intrigue

**Intrigue**

The house was large, with manicured lawns and high brick fences, cutting off the lights from their neighbors and strongly increasing the home's privacy. Night lay over the neighborhood like a thick woolen blanket, and a tall man in a long brown coat walked slowly up to the front door and knocked.

A dark-haired man opened the door, broad-shouldered and impressive, his hair trimmed and nails done impeccably.

He was ushered in immediately, the older, impeccable man leading the way to a study and closing the doors behind them.

"We have to be quiet -- my wife is a light sleeper." He moved to a mini bar. "Do you drink?"

"Not on the job, sir," the man in the long coat replied, looking around the room. In one sweep, he took in dark mahogany panels and a large, clean, well-organized desk. The man in front of him wore a thick winter sweater and dark slacks and was pouring himself a brandy. His hair was classically silvering and his face was strong and faintly recognizable.

"That's good. It bolsters my faith in your abilities, Inspector Smith. Or should I call you Nephrite?" The older man turned and took a seat, and Nephrite finally recognized him.

Police Chief Harris, the man that had been on TV so often, decrying the Sailor Senshi.

As Nephrite sat across from him, the man frowned. "You wear your hair long, like my son. Is that fashionable these days?"

He twinged a little at the older man's tone. What was wrong with his hair? He liked it long. "Are you going to tell me what you wanted me for, sir, or are we going to talk about hair all night?" He raised an eyebrow, and then regretted his own tone. He was a private investigator and hadn't had a job in months. It wouldn't do for him to push prospective clients away out of vanity and pride.

Chief Harris's eyebrows rose, but he got to business. "I want you to investigate some people for me. They're old and meddling, and I'd like to make sure that they aren't endangering the people of this town. I need you to go and get as much information about them as you can – maybe snap some pictures, or anything else that might help." He gave the young man a thick file.

Nephrite flipped through it and frowned. "Is all this legal, sir?"

"Don't worry about legal. If you get in trouble, I'll get you out of it. Just concentrate on not getting caught. If you do well, I'll double your pay."

"And my expenses?" Nephrite tried not to goggle at the promise. His pay was hefty on its own. Doubled, he wouldn't have to worry about making rent for a very long time.

"I'll take care of them." He stood and Nephrite took it as his cue to leave. "Just get me something on the Sailor Senshi."

------------------------

Hino Rei was in Hell.

No, she decided, picking up a greasy napkin with two perfectly manicured fingernails and dropping it on the other side of the table. This was worse than Hell.

This was Waffle House.

She was all smoldering darkness and clean lines – her makeup was perfect, her hair pulled half back, and her clothes casual but well-pressed. She was society's daughter, used to restaurants where the waiter's spoke only French, shiny new cars, and crisp hundred dollar bills straight from daddy. But in her eyes there was another woman – a Rei that had seen the damp alleys of the city, who had crawled through muck and snow with her long, white, smooth legs, and had experienced blood and pain and violence in those places, in the dirty places of the city.

And now this woman was at Waffle House, disdaining everything from the orange color scheme to the metal napkin dispensers.

She looked at her pearl-banded watch and sighed, then glanced up as the door chimed.

There he was. Five feet and nine inches of one freshly washed blonde man.

His hair was curling and still faintly damp from his shower, and he had a snug t-shirt on and some casual jeans.

His eyes, apprehensive, lingered on her for a moment before lighting into the brightest, whitest grin she'd seen in seven years. He was relieved as he sat down, eyes bright and hands clenching and unclenching nervously. "Hi."

She made an effort to smile. "Hi."

"So . . . how was your day?" he asked, eyes shifting nervously. She could read him easily and realized that if she didn't make any more of an effort, there wouldn't be a second date.

Her next smile was more genuine, and she tried to keep his eye. "My day was busy -- so I'm sorry if I seem a little distant. I'm very tired."

"Oh," he looked a little relieved, then concerned. "Are you sure you're up to this, then? I mean, if you're too tired . . ."

She chuckled. "No, I'm fine, really. Let's just . . . have dinner." She kept his eye and forced herself to toy with her hair flirtatiously. She so didn't feel flirtatious right then. Why couldn't Makoto do this again? Oh, right, Minako wanted to torture her.

Minako would be paying next time she wanted to spar. Maybe a nice black eye would compliment all that blonde hair . . .

Rei sucked in her breath and scanned the menu, wincing at the massive amounts of pig flesh they must horde in the back. Jadeite had stopped trying to make small talk and she appreciated it. Part of her felt a little bad for him, but the other part was too busy counting how many practice sessions she would have to go through to burn off all the weight she'd be gaining here.

"How's work?" she asked, getting to the point she was supposed to discuss.

"Um," he looked up from his menu and thought about it. "The debris by that fallen building is taking longer than we expected to clean up. But we haven't found anything else dangerous, so."

"I heard about the Sailor Scouts having to swoop in and save the day there," she commented with careful neutrality. "That must be embarrassing for the force."

Jadeite seemed troubled by this. "Chief Harris didn't like it much." He shrugged and didn't look at her. The topic obviously bothered him. "I don't know what happened. They might have saved the day and might have gotten Kevin hurt." He took a sip of the coffee the waitress had brought them. Rei wasn't sure whether she wanted to touch hers. "I do know that Kunzite thinks very highly of them, though," he said abruptly. "He gets pissed when the chief talks about them like he does. I try not to get in the middle of it."

"Really," Rei's estimation of Detective Kunzite rose. "Hm."

Jadeite shrugged and smiled crookedly, leaning forward as if sharing a secret with her. "He's got a thing for Sailor Venus."

Rei blinked at him. "What?"

Smiling with the story-teller's satisfaction in gaining her interest, Jadeite sat back and folded his hands on his stomach. He spoke in a low voice and looked up from under his bangs conspiratorially. "I've heard rumors about it, mainly from his friend Kate. Others say that he's in one of those cults that worship her. I didn't really believe any of it until Kate showed me the magazines in his desk drawer. All of them had a story on either the senshi as a group or Sailor Venus. He doesn't single out any of the other scouts." He silently triumphed that he'd found something to interest her, but a small twinge in his stomach told him he shouldn't have told something so personal about Kunzite. He'd always been a good cop, and had always been as nice to Jadeite as he was to anyone – in his own way. But Rei was looking more . . . concerned . . . than curious.

And Rei _was_ concerned. If Kunzite was in one of those crazy love goddess groups, it was dangerous for Minako to be so near to him. And if he found out about Minako's cover . . .

Sailor Venus could be in real danger.

Rei forced herself to focus on the task at hand. Sweet-talking more information out of Jadeite. She didn't have time to worry over everything he said.

The waitress took their orders and Rei blessed her for the time she had to think of another question. When the menus and woman were gone, she was ready.

"So how about those monster cases? Those must be really tough to solve," she said, fiddling with her straw and looking at him from underneath her lashes.

He seemed a bit more comfortable. "The chief is getting us all new equipment for the case. They think that the owner of the building may have something to do with its collapse, but they're not sure if he's involved with the monster attacks." He paused, thinking hard. "It's weird – this guy is one of the oldest, most respected men in town. I don't know why he'd do that." Jadeite shook his head and Rei blinked.

"Who is he?"

Urawa Ryo. As Rei drove home later, the information swirled around in her mind. Ami would probably be put on that part of the situation. But what about this Detective Kunzite?

None of it looked good.

------------------------

"Do you want anything to drink?" Kunzite asked, throwing his coat on a chair and going into a kitchen that was partially closed off from the living room. Minako had dropped by the police station to finish filling out the paperwork for the charges she wanted to file against the muggers, and Kunzite had refused to let her walk to Kevin's. Unfortunately, he had forgotten some papers for Kevin at his apartment, so they were stopping there first. Since it was only another block away to Kevin's, Minako had persuaded Kunzite to let her walk as long as she got a ride home.

"Water," she replied absently. Minako set her coat near his and looked around his living room, noting the bleak brownness of it. It was painfully spare, with only a couch, a tv, and some random scattered furniture that must be necessary for _something_. Kunzite was in the kitchen, and there was a curious door to her right, beckoning.

As Sailor Venus, she theorized, she had a duty to see if this man was any threat to her, especially since he'd made _Rei_ nervous.

Without a sound, she opened the door and slipped partway in, feeling for a light switch. The voice behind her held an edge. "What are you doing?" But it was too late, she had found it.

Before Kunzite could reach her, his bedroom was illuminated and Minako stared. Behind her, where she couldn't see, his face twisted with embarrassment, anger, and resignation.

"What is all of this?" she asked, stepping inside. He followed her and set the drinks down on a clear surface, sighing.

"You know how some guys are into cars, and some are into bands or pictures of naked women?" He stood next to her and looked at the posters, at the huge blurry copy he'd had blown up of the best Sailor Venus picture ever taken. He took a deep breath. "I'm into Sailor Venus."

"Not a naked Sailor Venus?" she teased lightly, and he ignored her. Then she looked at him for a moment, her face serious because of the obvious extent of his interest. Where some men would have nude women, he had blurry photos of a blonde whirl and Sailor V posters from the TV show.

"It started with this," he took her over to the small bookshelf. A line of colorful DVDs stood proudly on top of it, flanked by Sailor V UFO Catcher dolls. "I loved this show when I was a kid – it was just reruns then, but I wanted to be just like Sailor V." He turned and looked at the rest of the room. "And then it just . . . morphed." He gestured, showing that what he said was an obvious understatement.

It had exploded.

He turned back to the shelf and picked up his Sailor V doll, rubbing his thumbs lightly over her sides. "I know it sounds stupid, but . . . she's why I became a policeman. I thought it must be the best job in the world, protecting people. Just like V." He put the doll back and chuckled, glancing at Minako. "You know they have an official Sailor V fan club? That's why people think I'm in a cult." He shrugged and looked away, blushing. "I'm the treasurer."

Minako shook her head, a smile ghosting across her lips. "But if you like Sailor V so much, why this obsession with Venus?" She looked at the small lamp across the room with the Venus symbol on its shade.

Kunzite's eyes sparkled with excitement and he sat down on the side of his bed, body quivering with repressed energy. "That's my theory. Nobody really subscribes to it anymore, because V disappeared so suddenly, but I think that V and Venus are the same person."

Minako blinked at him, careful not to let the extent of her surprise show. "Really. How's that?"

He took her to another small bookshelf, crammed with an assortment of heights, titles, and covers. The bottom row was _all_ on the Sailor Senshi and Sailor Venus. He pulled two books out and flipped to left-in bookmarks.

"I cross-referenced the time she stopped showing up in London and the time she appeared in Tokyo. There was enough time for her to make the transition, and no reason why she couldn't be the same person." His eyes were brighter and his face more animated over this issue than anything she'd seen from him thus far. "As well, _none_ of the other senshi ever disappeared. But V did. Also, they look alike. See," he pointed to one of the clearer blurry images of Venus on his wall, "you can tell she has long blonde hair. Like yours." He gestured negligently and turned away before he could see Minako's guilty start. She reassured herself that he was too wrapped up in his explanation to really think about that comparison and made herself pay attention. "Also, I know that Sailor V had long blonde hair, and I doubt all the Sailor Senshi look that much alike."

Minako smiled a little, noting his flawed logic. "But you don't know _V_ had blonde hair – you just know her from the TV show."

He slid her a crafty glance. "But I do." He was quickly back by the books and pulled out an old, battered leather-bound book. He stood and looked at her. "My great-grandfather met her. She saved his life once." He brandished the book and looked at the other open volumes on his bed. "Everything he describes her as in his journal fits Sailor Venus but none of the other senshi. I've studied it extensively," he added when her eyebrows rose.

Minako looked at his excited, serious expression and burst out laughing, destroying the tense, passionate air into mirth and something slightly ridiculous. "You're a Venus groupie!"

He blushed and put down the book he was still brandishing, suddenly coming down from his excitement, a little embarrassed. "Yeah, well. Don't tell anyone. I'm teased enough over the rumors."

"I won't," she smiled and they were just looking at each other with a pleasant amiability around them.

"Minako," he murmured, frowning at her suddenly. "What's your surname?"

"Aino," she replied without thinking, surprised that he would even ask. "Why?"

"Are you related to the girl that played Sailor V? Maybe she was your grandmother or something?" He went over and brought her a DVD as she turned crimson, pointing out the actress's name on the back. "She has the same name as you." He looked into her red, gaping face and his simple curiosity sharpened. He straightened and his voice went more serious. "Minako . . . you aren't . . ."

She looked quickly down and dug her toe into his carpet, speaking shyly. "I didn't think anyone _liked_ my show anymore." She looked up at him with a nervous smile from beneath her bangs.

That's right. Play the shy actress. Get him away from the truth as much as possible.

His frown deepened and he regarded her so seriously that she forgot to pretend to be nervous and _was_ nervous.

What he asked was not what she expected – and not anywhere near what she wanted to broach.

"How _old_ are you?" His eyes narrowed as things began to click and rush together in his mind. He was breathless with it. "You must be older than the queen . . . who _are_ you!" He grabbed her arm and she was suddenly terrified. Not of what he could do to her, but of what he would figure out. Of what she might have to do to _him_. "Nobody that old is anything less than a major figure in Crystal Tokyo, but I've never even heard of you in city politics . . . Not even among the Retired." There was a sect of Tokyo that those of the Queen's childhood had taken up, those that had lived the longest, where they had hoarded their wealth and did nothing more now than spend their time relaxing and playing social and political games. They were all famous in their own right.

"Let go of me, Kunzite," she breathed, frightened.

He did, but his body blocked any flight she might make and he forced her to move back as he spoke. "You're lying about something." Her back ran up against a wall and a doorknob jammed into her spine. Kunzite was right against her, looking hard into her face. "But it's not who you are. I can see the resemblance now. You're Aino Minako. You played Sailor V. I knew there was something bothering me before." His eyes softened a bit, unfocusing, and he touched her cheek. "You've grown." He said it simply, but with the way he was looking at her, it was a staggering compliment.

Then his eyes went hard again.

"So what are you lying about? And why are you dating a police officer so much younger than you?" He still couldn't put the last few clues together, and this seemed to puzzle him the most.

"Kunzite," if Minako hadn't been so frightened he'd figure it out, she would have tried to bluff her way out of it. But he'd just burst every bluff she'd given him and her emotions were at their most chaotic peak. So she reached behind her, grabbed the intrusive doorknob, slipped in, and slammed the door in his face.

Her senshi strength was more than enough to keep it closed, and she felt around for a light switch. When she turned it on, she found herself in a walk-in closet. The t-shirts to her right grabbed her attention while she tried to calm her breathing and think rationally.

This was _so_ not going well.

It was several minutes before Kunzite could open the door to find a hysterical Minako holding one of his t-shirts by the hanger. He glared at her as she turned to him.

"You have . . ." she laughed and tried to catch her breath, "Sailor Venus . . . T-SHIRTS!" She waved a white thing at him with the symbol of Venus imprinted on the front in gold and the word "Love" on the back in similar lettering. Beside it, she had seen some Sailor V shirts and one with a spaceship that said "I Break for Venusians." She cracked up again and Kunzite couldn't help but soften to a smile at her good humor.

He sighed, his anger flowing out like water in the force of her smiles. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry I was . . . rough. You just surprised me -- I never thought I'd meet Sailor V." He caught her odd, deer-like look and noted it to think about later. "I mean, the girl who _played_ Sailor V." She seemed calmer at that. "And even though I still think you're hiding something, I'll overlook it if you'll just stop taunting my clothing choices." He put a hand out to her and she looked at it dubiously for a moment, still clutching his Sailor Venus t-shirt, before hanging the shirt back up and taking his hand.

She sighed, tired, as he led her out of the closet. It wasn't a good day all around, and she wanted to get back to the palace and take a nice, steamy soak in the senshi's private hot tub.

Her last comment before they parted amiably was, "So do you actually wear those things in public?"

Kunzite laughed. "Just the underwear." And shut the door in her startled face.


	5. Investigation

**Investigation**

While Minako dreamed of the senshi's private hot tub, a man with long brown hair was pacing nervously through the halls of the palace, completely lost.

"Damn map, damn bribe, damn employer," he muttered under his breath. If he didn't find either the senshi or the way out soon, he was going to march straight to the Queen and ask _her_ where the hell it was.

He only hoped to God she would know.

He entered a hallway that had no windows and only a few doors running straight along it. It was dimly lit, and looked almost identical to all the other hallways in the castle. He held back a frustrated sigh and picked up on voices echoing down and around a corner. They weren't very close, and Nephrite had quite enough time to pick a door and slip inside.

He pressed his back against the door and looked around him. While the hallway was fairly dim, this place was like a cave. The air against him was damp, and there was an echo of water from somewhere ahead of him. He couldn't see inside the whole room because tall columns and pockets of dark were on either side of him with just enough room between them for his shoulders to fit comfortably through. Glancing up past the towering columns, he saw that there was no roof – or, rather, there was a _glass_ roof, because otherwise it wouldn't be quite so warm in the room – and the light he saw was from the moon above.

At least he knew which floor he was on now.

The steady lap of water made him curious, so he dared a peek around the columns, not sure if the people in the hall were gone yet.

It was huge. The height barely made up for the breadth and the moon shimmered off of the damp stone and glittering water. Steam rose up from the baths in curls – they were maybe ten meters long and just as wide, and he could make out an artificial waterfall from an elevated bath into the larger, main one. Nephrite drew in his breath in awe and wished wryly that his apartment complex had something like this.

Considering his large, hairy neighbor, though, he nixed that fantasy.

Watching the ripples for a few moments, he glanced to the side and slid more into the shadows, alarmed.

There was someone in the water.

The smooth, sleek head of a woman reclined on the edge of the stone and toes occasionally peaked out in front of her to make long, luxurious ripples.

He wondered who she was for a few serious moments before noticing that she was stirring and standing up.

And then he forgot completely about his mission, who she might be, and the fact that he was supposed to be hiding as much from her as anybody – because she was nude.

It was too dark to make out details, but the impressions he got through the moonlight of long hair and shapely limbs were distinct enough to do powerful things to his body. She was, however, quickly out of his sight and he stumbled quietly back to brace himself against the door he had come in, letting the moonlit woman play rampant on his imagination. He had noted that her hair had been long and dark, but other than the outline of a fabulously naked body, he couldn't tell how tall she was or what her face looked like.

Which was probably best, he decided, forcing himself to calm down and take deep breaths.

The great, echoing room was silent and Nephrite turned his rebelling thoughts to the most important matter of the moment. He needed to get out of the castle.

So it was as he pressed his ear to the door to listen carefully for voices or footsteps that hands grabbed him roughly from behind and he found himself on the hard floor. When his vision cleared of black lights, he noted two things: one, that there was a tall, wet, _beautiful_ woman kneeling on his chest in nothing but a towel, and two, that her eyes held a murderously cold look.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded. The moonlight lit them both from the side, falling haphazardly across delicate features twisted in anger. Nephrite realized that the present would be a very bad time to gawk at her barely-covered breasts, and so he kept his gaze carefully on her face. She was probably lucky that her towel was a big one, because if it had slipped just a little, Nephrite was sure he wouldn't be able to hold his eyes at an appropriate level, especially since her hands were held firmly at his throat.

"I got lost," he offered honestly enough. She only glared harder.

"No one's allowed in here. You should know that." Her grip loosened slightly and she sat up straighter. "Now who are you?"

"I'm new," he thought quickly. "I work in the kitchens."

She got off of him and snorted not mirthlessly, adjusting her towel carefully and letting him stand up. "No you're not." At his surprised look, she added, "I run the kitchens. If you had lied about any other part of the castle staff, I would have believed you."

Nephrite silently cursed himself, but looked at this woman with a new sort of interest. She knew he was lying, but she was letting him up? Wasn't she afraid that he would attack her or something? He certainly was bigger than her, and she wasn't wearing quite enough to keep the average disreputable male from considering something like rape.

In fact, this woman embodied a kind of sensuality that inspired men _to_ rape.

This strange phenomenon made him particularly careful to keep his hands in sight and away from her at all times. She _did_ just take him down without even a warning, and just because she was a cook didn't mean she didn't know how to fight.

She sighed and glanced at him. "Follow me."

He did, maintaining a decent distance. She walked along past the water and over to a bench where some clothes lay, and immediately began putting them on.

He tried not to peek. He really did. But out of the many things he had ever failed at, he'd never had such a tempting offer to peek at a naked woman before. And _easy_! She wasn't even looking at him as she slipped on her skirt and t-shirt, dropping the towel from under her clothes once they were on.

She said nothing as she jerked her head toward another door he hadn't seen and they went out into a hallway identical to the one he'd been in. The hall was cooler than the room they'd just been in, and Nephrite suddenly felt damp. In the low lights of the hallway, he could see that the woman's hair was dark brown when wet, and he felt like a kid caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Where was she taking him? To the queen?

Nephrite had a sudden vision of himself standing before her very solemn Imperial Highness, accused of being a Peeping Tom on a bathing servant. The picture was so ludicrous that it almost made him laugh, but he caught himself in time and only smiled.

She took him to the kitchen. The staff there nodded to her and Nephrite was uncomfortable, feeling guilt sweeping over him under all those friendly and curious glances.

The woman had him wash his hands and sit down on a stool next to an empty counter. She got out several containers from a pantry, washed her own hands, and began putting things in a bowl.

Nephrite couldn't stand it anymore as she put the eggs in. "What are you doing? Are you going to kill me with your cooking?"

"I've never killed anyone with my cooking," she smiled at the egg shells she was throwing away. After washing her hands again, she handed him the bowl and a wooden spoon. "Stir."

He did as commanded, but still looked at her strangely as she poured chocolate chips into the concoction. "Aren't I going to get in trouble?"

"Do you want to?" she countered calmly.

"Not really."

She nodded sagely. "Then you're going to help me make these cookies and tell me why you're here, and then you can go."

"Is this some kind of punishment?" he asked sullenly as she fell silent again, not trusting that she would be so lenient.

She blinked, smiled, then shrugged. "I had a craving for cookies."

He stared at her. Her hair framed her face in drying curls and her eyes glittered when she laughed. Green eyes, like summer. "Who are you?" he asked.

Her laughter stopped and she only smiled gently at him. "A woman who cooks well enough to please the queen."

"And you aren't offended that I . . . ?" He couldn't say it.

"You said you were just lost," she reminded him. "And I have no reason to be angry." She chuckled. "Do you have any idea the last time a man saw me naked? It's almost a compliment that you didn't run away screaming. I was beginning to think that I'd gotten ugly or something." She gave a charming smile and he couldn't help but smile back, laughing a little.

He glanced up at her from over the cookie batter. "You're anything but ugly."

She glowed, and Nephrite caught his breath.

"Look," she said as she let him out of the castle's kitchen entrance. "You see that building over there?" She pointed to a tall business building that didn't begin to reach halfway up the castle's height. "Sony" was printed on its side in softly lit letters. "Just remember this door is opposite it. If you ever want to stop by again," she smiled winsomely and Nephrite knew that he _would_ come back – and not just because it was part of his investigation, "just use this door, and if I'm not here someone will come and get me." She looked him up and down warmly and added, "Maybe I'll even give you a tour – _away_ from the hot tubs."

He was smiling as he slipped into the darkness and she closed him away from the bright, crystalline palace.

------------------------

Rei's car smelled like cookies and brownies and warm, melting, sugary goodness.

Minako bubbled with excitement as they slid sleekly down the streets of Tokyo. Rei wondered what had inspired this mood in her friend -- she hadn't seemed all that fond of Kevin a few weeks ago. But as the blonde sneaked a cookie and savored it slowly, her eyes closing, Rei grinned. It was probably just the sugar fumes making her hyper.

"Cookies!" Minako called loudly, bursting through the police department's doors with arms full of baskets. Rei followed behind her, more sedate as she pushed gently through the doors, and smiled softly at Minako's loud enthusiasm in passing out the treats.

Jadeite saw her and hurried over to relieve her of some of the baskets. She smiled at him, appreciating the help, and his eyes were warm and affectionate as he smiled back. The looks he tossed her over passing out the cookies were sweet and . . . so _normal_. Rei allowed herself to wonder if this was what most couples did, and she blushed lightly.

"Congratulations, baby!" Minako cried, hugging Kevin. It was his first day back on the job and they had brought mountains of sweets to the station to celebrate.

Minako's gaze met Kunzite's over Kevin's shoulder and she lost a bit of her smile. He looked so unhappy -- even his body was slumping in on itself with some unwanted pain.

She knew no one else saw it, and gave Kevin one last little squeeze before letting him go. "You get all the cookies you want," she told him, her smile bright and cheery and hopelessly fake again. Her attention turned to the captain, who was peeking out of his office, and her smile turned up ten notches. "Captain! Come on, join us! We're celebrating Kevin's recovery!" She ran over and pulled him out, closing his office door and leading him to the largest pile of cookies as people swarmed around, laughing and smiling at the unexpected break.

"They even brought drinks," Jadeite smiled at his captain as Rei set the sodas down on the desk that had been nominated for the food.

"Rei will pour you something -- what would you like?" Minako bubbled and flirted with her lashes. She ignored the brief glare Rei sent her before the dark-haired woman bent to fill up plastic cups.

"And what, nothing for me?" Kevin pouted as he came up and wrapped his arms around Minako from behind.

She twisted in his arms and hugged him, reassuring. "It's just sucking up to your boss, baby," she whispered, laughing, and kissed his cheek.

"I'll eat this in my office," the captain was saying. "Thank you."

Rei's eyes flew to Minako, but the blonde was already moving, her own drink in hand. "Oh, don't go, sir! It's not a party without yo—" she stumbled a little and spilled her drink on his shirt.

He cursed, face darkening, and she set her cup down, mortified.

"I know how to get it out," she said desperately, taking his things and setting them down before leading him toward the bathroom in the back. "Just a little cold water before it sets and it'll be good as new!" She grimaced at Kevin as she passed him, then caught Kunzite's eye. She was surprised -- while Kevin seemed to be distressed at this development, Kunzite looked like he was holding back a smile. She simply shrugged at him and led the captain into the little room.

The captain never saw the blue-haired woman going through his files.

After the party, Kunzite found Minako in the back bathroom, rinsing out her cups so she could take them home. Jadeite was keeping Rei busy and Kate and Momoko were talking to Kevin.

"Interesting party," he told her, and she just smiled at him over her shoulder.

"I thought he deserved it," she lied. "And Rei really wanted to see Jadeite again. She isn't very good at showing her emotions, but I could tell."

He wore a thoughtful smile. "Tell me, Minako," he said finally, and she glanced at him. There was all friendly charm in her and her eyes were open and honest. Kunzite had a hard time reconciling this gentle, appropriate little woman with the skimpy tramp that had waltzed into the station the first time he saw her. "Was it just me, or did your 'accident' with the captain look a little staged?"

She blinked at him, then gave a forced laugh. "Well . . ." she wracked her brain, "I thought it wouldn't hurt if I flirted with the boss a bit. Might get Kevin a raise, ne? And what better way to flirt properly than getting the man to take his shirt off!"

He nodded, not believing her, and changed the topic to other things.

They spent half an hour in there after she'd finished the cups, just talking and laughing, and no one really missed them.

------------------------

Tokyo's retired community was the most lavish section of the city, with sprawling parks to their individual enjoyment and a serene view of the crystal palace. The queen's family was known to live there, as were many others from that long-ago era of disunity and monster invasions. Of the people of Tokyo, these were the ones who woke up screaming in the night after the new monster threat was found, sweat covering their bodies and tears in their eyes. These were the ones that had found their homes and stores and lives destroyed by creatures worse than imagination, and were the ones who told the stories and published the books on the Sailor Senshi and their incalcuable goodness and strength.

Unfortunately, Ami thought as she put a gentle hand to her hat, most of the new, hotshot civilians didn't have any softening memory of the senshi.

She sighed and pushed the buzzer for the mansion. The gates opened immediately, and she walked in without surprise. Her pretty blue eyes were far too old, far too wise, and far too tired for any woman.

"Urawa," she greeted as he opened the door to her and gave a faint smile.

He turned and motioned for her to come inside. She narrowed her eyes at the large, dark suitcases by the door as he picked two up.

"Get those, will you?" he said of the smaller bags, and she complied.

"You're leaving," she commented, vaguely surprised. Urawa was a psychic and a man she had loved once, very long ago.

"Yes," he replied softly. "Yes, I am. I had decided to wait until you came by, but I am leaving." He flipped the garage light on and she followed him to a shiny red Porshe.

"So tell me, Urawa, what happened to your building?" She was calm, but a slip of concern entered her eyes.

He sighed and put his suitcases in the trunk. "It was human, Ami," he said, shutting the trunk and staring at it for a moment, then turning to her. When she met his eyes, she saw tears and more fear than she had ever seen in this bright, beautiful man. "It was human, and a lot of people are going to die." The tears fell. "I'm sorry, Ami. A lot of people are going to die."

She reached for him and he melted into her arms, letting her hold him like a frightened child. When he was himself again, he stood and sniffled, then glanced back down at her. A light smile crossed his pained face and he touched her cheek. His voice was low and soft. "You're still beautiful, Ami. You've always been so beautiful. . . ." He stepped forward and left a chaste, lingering kiss on her cheek. "Something wonderful will happen to you before the end of this, darling. I wish I could stay to rejoice with you, but . . ." His face changed and he opened the door of his car, getting in and starting the engine. Before he closed it, he looked at her very seriously. "Tell the queen to get her family somewhere safe. I'll see you again, princess."

Her eyes were filled with tears as the garage door opened and he left. The housekeeper showed her out the gate a few minutes later.

------------------------

"If _Urawa_ is worried . . ." the queen fiddled with her staff, her eyes unsettled.

"Then we should take some serious precautions," the king finished for her.

The Sailor Senshi were in a closed meeting with the king and queen and their advisors, filling them in on everything they'd learned the past few days.

"If it is a human, we should find him and lock him away," Luna, the chief advisor put in. "The girls need to be on this around the clock."

"They're on it as much as they can be," the queen mused, her beautiful eyes unfocusing for a moment. "I'm much more concerned about our enemy being human. What do you do with a human? I can't use my powers against him . . ."

"No one said it was _our_ enemy, majesty," Venus broached sensibly. "Whoever it was probably just had a grudge against that company. Maybe they didn't hire him."

"But someone with that kind of temper -- and that kind of _power_ – would be dangerous to everyone in Tokyo," Artemis pointed out.

"And if that were all, Urawa wouldn't be so scared," Mercury added softly. She still felt his sad kiss on her cheek.

The queen sighed and the king squeezed her hand. She gave him an appreciative look before addressing her warriors. "Okay, then. Mercury, I want you to make sure our dear detective really _is_ just an ordinary fan of Venus, then check out who Makoto's new friend is. I want everything you have on them. Mars and Venus, I know you've scanned the police captain's files, but now you need to get samples of whatever strange materials they found in the wreckage and bring them to Mercury for analysis."

"Done," Mars said.

"So fast?" the queen's eyebrows shot up and she smiled warmly. "Good job, Mars. How did you do it?" Even Minako was curious. She hadn't set Mars on the task.

Mars' face closed off.

"She wouldn't even tell me, your majesty," Mercury put in, fighting back a smile at the queen's curiosity. When her eyes lit like that, she looked so much like the sweet Usagi they had all known so many years ago. The kind, loyal traces of that girl were so strong in this woman . . .

The lovely psychic's lips were tight. "The security there is lax. I just had to coax my way in."

Venus grinned and said she knew exactly what "coaxing" meant, and Jupiter, who had been silent and uncomfortable in all the talk of strategy, burst into laughter as Mars flushed. The rest of the meeting dissolved as the beautiful dark-haired woman fought off the ideas of her two very hentai colleagues.


	6. Violence

**Violence**

"Don't you have any sense!" Chief Harris roared at his younger son. The boy cowered on the polished office floor where he had knelt to pick up the broken vase's shards. He was a slim young man, barely an adult, and had a slight mental imbalance. His brown hair was disarrayed and his eyes were afraid behind askew glasses. "You're such an idiot!"

Mrs. Harris covered her son's ears, angry. "Don't tell him that! It was just an accident!" She had soft brown curls falling to her shoulders and a kind, faintly lined face. Her pretty violet eyes were now narrowed at her husband. "He's a good boy – he can't help the way he is."

"He's a fool," his father spat. He glared at the tears growing in his son's eyes and made a disgusted noise. "I don't have time for this," he said, turning away. "I have to find something to get rid of those Senshi once and for all."

Mrs. Harris stroked her son's hair and he climbed to his feet. "Don't worry about this, I'll clean it up," she sighed, looking at the mess. She glanced at her son. He was staring at the ground in pain, and her heart went out to him. "He says things he doesn't mean when he's angry. He'll apologize later," she assured him, knowing from her own experience. She knew that he said cruel things when he was drunk as well, but this time he was only stressed. She was glad, though, that he only drank at night, when her sons were in bed, so that they had never seen him in that state. No, that honor was for her alone. And she had accepted the fact that while he was rougher and meaner in bed when he drank, he had never become painfully violent.

She lived with it for the sake of her younger son, who could not move out and live his own life like his older brother had.

"I'm sorry," he said, and stared blankly at the files on his father's desk while his mother went to get a broom and dustpan. The tears slipped unchecked down his cheeks – he had forgotten he was even crying, and he read the titles of the reports. "Sailor Venus," "Sailor Mars," Sailor Mercury," and "Sailor Jupiter." There were even files on the king and queen. He tilted his head, thoughts clicking together slowly, and a final tear dripped onto the desk.

"The Sailor Senshi," he whispered. Father hated the Sailor Senshi. So if he got rid of them . . . Father would love him.

The thin brown-haired boy slipped out the door past his mother, broom and dustpan in her hands and rag covering her tidy hair.

"Phil?" she called after him as he trotted down the hall, opened the front door, and went into the sunshine. "Phil, where are you going?"

------------------------

Makoto twisted work-rough hands in her skirt as she waited. Lunch and cleanup were done, and the staff had already left the kitchens for their break. The room was bright and cheerful, which bellied the eerie emptiness of its abandonment.

She had strained her ears for the knock for so long that it startled her when it came. Her breath rapid, she opened the door.

Flowers were promptly thrust at her.

"Roses," she breathed, taking them and turning to find a vase. "I love roses."

"I thought you would," Nephrite replied, following her inside. He had considered daisies, but decided not to take any chances when this woman's graces were his only key into the castle. Now that he saw her, though, he was doubly glad he had spent more on the roses. She was in a pale green summer dress with a wide belt and broad-brimmed hat. Her calves were smooth and round and her hair waved free down her back.

She was beautiful.

"Let's go," she smiled after the roses were arranged properly. Nephrite could only nod his reply.

They went to lunch in a charming little café that Makoto had recommended, right next to the castle. It wasn't very expensive, had a beautiful view, and boasted some of the best pastries in Tokyo.

Nephrite, happier than he could remember being in a long time, was in the process of putting a creme puff into Makoto's mouth when both of their cell phones rang.

"Damn," he muttered, and took the call.

_Brown,_ Chief Harris's voice came in, strong and demanding, _there's a monster downtown. The senshi are likely to be there and I want you to take some pictures._

"I'm on it," he replied, and sighed as he hung up. "Makoto," he started to apologize, but she was already standing and grabbing her purse.

"One of the assistant chefs had an accident," she said. "I have to take off, I'm sorry."

He only nodded dumbly and watched her catch a Taxi before calling for the bill and rushing to his own car.

It was odd, though, how she'd been called away at the same time he had. But he shook the feeling of absurdity off and sped up, praying the traffic light gods would be kind.

------------------------

Downtown Tokyo sparkled in the sunlight. Housewives were shopping and business men were out for lunch. Buildings reflected the sunlight into all the dark places, and people were content as they crossed the street.

So it was with confusion that people looked at the shadow falling over them, and with horror that they looked at the creature that made it.

The Senshi made record time of slipping into their armor and getting to the scene. The police were already there, they noted, and releasing full clips into the thing without any visible result. Some of the police were helping civilians to get out of the fire zone, and Venus was distressed to see that Kunzite was among the former and _not_ the latter.

Then they saw the bodies.

"God," Jupiter whispered, horror-struck. There weren't a lot of bodies, but Mercury's computer pronounced them definitely dead. Men in suits, women in charming dresses, a little boy, a pregnant woman . . .

And in the middle of them, a ten foot monster, black and sharp with its cutting hands and loose, heavy jaw.

"Kill it," Venus ordered, her voice strangled, and then they were moving like a smooth fleet of birds, surrounding the monster and thankful for the bullet proof properties of their armor -- because the policemen didn't stop in their fire.

"Mercury, give me an analysis! Jupiter, Mars, double attack!" Venus cried out and blasted the thing with a low-power Crescent Beam to get it away from the policemen. Jupiter and Mars got ready, and Venus tried to get the thing annoyed enough to come for _her_ so her friends could blast it.

A swirl of fire and lightning hit it in the stomach, but it only stopped to let out a howl and then bared its thick, heavy teeth. It was mad.

"That spot on its forehead! The inverted moon -- aim for it!" Mercury yelled. Venus nodded and got a full Crescent Beam ready -- she didn't think Jupiter or Mars could hit it full power for another few minutes after their attack.

She was concentrating so hard on her attack that she didn't notice the policemen firing at the monster again -- so that when the monster snatched one of the uniformed men and held him ready to throw at her, she had just released her Crescent Beam.

It hit the monster in the symbol on its head -- but it had to go straight through the policeman to get there.

The Sailor Senshi stood in shock as the monster fell and the policeman's hat fell off.

Brown hair, Venus noted without actually thinking about it. She couldn't think about anything.

The monster dropped and the man fell -- Venus couldn't feel her feet moving, but she found herself catching him and lowering him gently to the ground.

She was numb as she took her right glove jerkily off and felt for a pulse. Mercury was immediately beside her, searching for his vitals.

"There's nothing," she whispered, and took Venus' shaking white hand from his neck. His eyes were blank and cold, and there was a gaping hole burnt through his chest.

Tears fell behind her face mask. "Kevin. . . ." she whispered.

------------------------

Back at the castle, Venus vomited. When she had been so unwilling to move, Mars had taken charge of the situation and ordered the policemen back while she and Jupiter forced Venus to stand and supported her as they walked back to the castle. Venus was lost to their voices, and all she could see was Kevin's lifeless body.

The queen sat in Minako's room with the other three senshi, waiting for Venus to empty her stomach. She fingered her staff, a nervous habit she'd developed long ago, and her eyes were pensive.

None of the Sailor Senshi had _ever_ killed a human.

What was she going to do? Serenity wondered as her distressed eyes met Minako's. That blue was so dull now -- hair flat and sparkle gone completely from her body as she leaned limply against the bathroom's doorway.

What was she _ever_ going to do?

------------------------

She wore a red gown, her hair was up, and diamonds sparkled from the soft, elegant mass. She kept her makeup plain, with a soft lipstick and feathery red eyeshadow.

She was elegant, mysterious, and very worried.

"Want to tell me about it?" the man behind the wheel inquired softly.

"Tell you about what? I'm fine," she lied. He only gave her a brief Look and then turned back to traffic.

"We have about ten minutes before we get there. So spill."

How can I tell you that one of my best friends killed a man today and now we can't find her? she asked silently. What she said out loud was, "Should we really be going out tonight? What happened to your friend this morning was . . . bad." She knew that she was saying it because she needed to know what he thought of the Senshi, and know if he was a threat, but she still felt bad for doubting him.

He was silent, frowning, for a long moment. "I actually didn't know Kevin all that well." There was another long pause and he smiled wryly at her, "Besides, I couldn't give up these reservations."

"Where are we going, anyway?" she asked, a frown creasing its way in between her eyebrows. She glanced over at Jadeite and took in the sight of his JC Penny blazer and navy blue tie. She was pleased to see that it wasn't a clip-on, but was used to elaborate tuxedos when someone told her it was a "black tie" evening.

"It's a surprise," he smiled, and she managed to pick up a bit of anxiety from the way he held his body. The face might lie, but the body never did.

It was their fifth date. She could tell that he knew she wasn't madly in love with him, but that he also didn't know why she kept going out with him. So while he was confused, he held onto enough hope and didn't allow himself to worry about it.

"We're here," he said, and got out, handing his keys to a valet and hurrying around to open Rei's car door. When she stood up and looked at him in wonder, her hand still in his, he smiled brilliantly. "You said you liked French."

It was one of the most expensive restaurants in Tokyo. You paid for the water and left outrageous tips -- and the only people who came here where the ones who could afford to leave outrageous tips. The retired community, mainly. The Senshi had nights out there on occasion -- sometimes even the King and Queen were known to make an appearance, though that had been less and less since Princess Serenity had been born, a few hundred years ago.

She was speechless for another moment, riotous thoughts running through her head -- how was he going to _pay_ for this! -- but the hope and heartbreaking worry in his eyes put those thoughts on hold and she smiled softly at him, determined to make this evening worth his every effort.

So she took his arm and they went inside.

When the maitre'd saw her, he completely ignored Jadeite and came up to kiss her on both cheeks. "Madamoiselle Hino! We're honored to have you back! Would you like your usual table?" She was vaguely annoyed with him when she saw that Jadeite had shrunk back a little and was blushing, so she stepped back and swung him forward a little.

"Actually, my gentleman has reservations." The maitre'd looked at Jadeite and fought against disdain for Madamoiselle Hino's sake.

Jadeite gave his name and used his free hand to adjust his tie self-consciously. They were led back to a table by a wall with no spectacular view and the maitre'd asked again if Madamoiselle Hino would like her regular table, looking at the reserved one and frowning.

Aware that the man was making her date uncomfortable, she gave him her coldest look and replied with a firm and final "No."

When she turned back to Jadeite, he wasn't looking at her and she didn't need to probe him to tell that he was ashamed. Ashamed of his discount clothing when she wore a $2,000 gown, ashamed at having to save up for a month to buy her this dinner, and ashamed of the fact that it was still nothing new to her, that she was a regular customer here and that he would never be rich or charming enough to make her look at him like he looked at her.

Rage suddenly bubbled in her chest -- not at him, or even herself, but at circumstances that made him feel like he was less than she was or the other people in the restaurant. Mad at the maitre'd, at fancy restaurants, and policemen's wages. Mad and furious, and when he looked up, he saw that, and opened his mouth to apologize, on the verge of helpless tears . . .

And she kissed him.

When they parted, she whispered, "Do you want to get out of here?"

He didn't put up much protest when she took his hand and led him out of the restaurant. The maitre'd looked upset, but she ignored him.

Outside, they turned to each other at the same time. "I'm sorry," they said in unison, and then both smiled.

"You go," he said, blushing.

"I'm sorry he was so rude to you. This is my favorite restaurant – or at least it was." She frowned, brooding at the door, and then looked back at Jadeite, stepping closer to him and smiling. "I do appreciate this."

"Well," he ran a hand through his hair. "I was hoping this would be a nice evening." He looked miserable.

Rei looked at him and got an idea. Coolly, she told the hovering valet that they wouldn't need the car and led Jadeite around the building. "They have a lovely view," she told him, and they walked toward the railing that overlooked the lake. The sky was black and starless thanks to the city's lights, but Tokyo glittered off of the water in sweet ripples and cast the light, washed clean, back up to them.

"Rei," he said, turning and taking her hands, "I'm sorry. I really _was_ hoping tonight would be nice, and . . . romantic, and . . ." She lay a finger over his lips, and her eyes were warm. His heart skipped a beat when he saw how she was looking at him.

"I've been taken to dinner by men before, Jadeite," she said, and he moved away from her finger before he did something embarrassing like kiss it. "But they've always been well able to afford it."

"I know," his eyes were closed in pain.

She gripped his chin and made him look at her. "It never really cost them anything. So it never meant that much. But you . . . This is the first time a man has tried to give me something he _couldn't_ get easily." She put her hand on his cheek and he leaned into it. "Thank you."

He smiled a little and his watch beeped the hour. "Oh," he said dumbly, snapped out of his trance, and then was caught by the softly glowing lights beneath them. "Wha-?"

Rei laughed and he looked at her sly, knowing eyes.

And then tall streams of water shot up like geysers from beneath them and filled the air, dying down to leap back up into magical patterns, and Rei grabbed his hand and pulled him in a wild dance through it.

"Your dress!" he cried, worried about the satin and silk, and she swung him around and kissed him before twirling joyfully in another bout of the spray. Her dress was dark and clinging to her long, slender body in only moments. And Jadeite was pulled along, dancing with her in an elegant swoop while water shot up at them from the gently glowing ground and the lake lapped softly beneath them.

The valets stared as the couple came back, laughing, and requested Jadeite's car. Several of the men couldn't help admiring the way Rei's wet dress clung to her curves or how her dark hair was plastered to the long column of her throat, but none of them could have taken her attention from her companion for any amount of trying.

"I hope you don't mind your car getting wet," she said as she slid in.

He looked at her with laughter and sweetness in his eyes, and said that nothing could bother him less.

When he got home after dropping her off at the apartment building she'd said was hers, he saw something glinting in her seat. He picked up a hairpin. Curious, he held it by the long end and ran the jewel across his window.

When he brought it back, he saw a long, faint scratch in the glass.

Once again readjusting his views on her wealth, he sat back in his seat and sighed.

"Diamonds. _Damn._" He blew out a long breath, and it was several minutes before he could bestir himself to go inside.

------------------------

Kunzite was lying on his couch, staring up at the ceiling when the knock came. He'd been in that position for an hour and vaguely debated ignoring the knock, but sighed and rolled off the couch when it came a second time – soft and somehow unhappy.

When he opened the door to Minako, he was immediately concerned. Everything around her was dull and wilted, and her eyes were far too tired. She looked up at him and spoke in a voice he barely recognized.

"Can I stay the night here? On your couch – or the floor, if you like." He moved and she stepped in, looking around dimly as if expecting someone to come out and slap the last clinging remnants of dignity from her. "I just can't stay at home." She looked up at him, her sad eyes too weary to beg his understanding.

He touched her arm gently, reassuring her. "I'll get you a pillow."

By the time he returned, she was asleep on his couch, dry tear tracks on her cheeks. He put the pillow near her hand and spread a warm blanket over the rest of her. Instead of wishing her nice dreams or kissing her forehead goodnight, he only took one last look at her, sighed, and turned out the apartment lights.

He wasn't _glad_ she felt safe enough to come to him – he was more content. Wearily content.

------------------------

In the morning, Minako accepted the coffee Kunzite handed her and sipped at it slowly as he sat beside her. She was wrapped up in the blanket she'd slept under and he was worried about the darkness under her eyes and the small tremors around her mouth. He'd never seen her look so vulnerable. He hadn't realized it before, but no matter what she was doing, she had always carried an air of confidence and inner strength. Even when she'd been mugged, it wasn't this bad.

He watched her carefully as she grimaced. "This coffee is kind of weak," she frowned.

Kunzite was surprised and let out a low, soft laugh. He'd made it weaker than he was used to for her comfort, but it was still fairly strong by normal standards. "I agree." He smiled down at her until she smiled back – a weak smile, but an honest one nonetheless.

She handed her cup back to him, still smiling. "Then make more – and make it better."

He nodded stoutly and fled to his task. As he poured out the old coffee and measured a whole new filter of it, he knew that he wanted to make her smile again. He mused over how to do that as the coffee percolated.

"Can I talk to you for a little?" Kunzite turned around as Minako took a seat at his small table. It just barely fit in his miniature kitchen and one of the legs lapped over onto the living room carpet.

"Of course," he replied, leaning against the counter.

She didn't look at him, just picked at a small piece of rice that had dried onto the table. "I didn't really know Kevin that well," she said after a long while. "My friends knew it – I only went out with him for my own reasons. I didn't really care about him. And when he died . . . everybody felt bad for me, but they knew I hadn't been in love with him. So they just felt bad for me, and even though they didn't treat me like a heartbroken widow, like some others do, they didn't really mourn for _him_. They think I'm the one with the problems and I don't even think they've considered him – they don't care that he's dead, only that it has some kind of an impact on me. And I keep thinking about it and, you know, I was starting to _like_ him. I let him tell his friends what he wanted about us, but after the first attack . . . I just got to see more and more of his decent side and even though I was still going to break up with him, I . . . _respected_ him." She looked up at Kunzite, her eyes pained. "But my friends don't understand. I can't even really explain it. I feel _bad_ that he's dead, but they just feel bad for me. And I wish that they'd feel a little bit bad for him because he's dead and I'm not. . . ." The tears fell down her cheeks and Kunzite's heart twisted in his chest.

He placed his arms around her awkwardly and stroked her hair like his mother used to do for him. It had been a very long time since he'd last had to comfort someone – and it had never been like this. He just wasn't the comforting kind. Kate took care of the emotional part of things at work, and no one had ever bothered to see if _he_ knew how to make anyone feel better.

"I feel so bad, Kunzite," she whispered. "I feel so bad. He died and he didn't even know that I didn't love him."

"Is that a bad thing?" he whispered back, into her hair.

She sniffled and laughed a little, mirthlessly. "I thought you were going to say what my friends would say." Her laughter was painful to him. It had a sharp, despairing edge. "They'd probably tell me that my love isn't worth that much anyway." They wouldn't have said it. It was the kind of thing they teased each other about – the kind of thing they said when things were going splendidly, and that none of them took to heart. They were fun things to make the others chase you around in the hot tub, trying to dunk your head under, and inspired dashes through the palace's hallways with pillows waved in laughing anger. But now the edge of those long-remembered barbs stuck in her chest and made it hard to breathe.

"Then those friends aren't worth your time," he replied, looking hard into her eyes. "You're a wonderful woman, Minako, and you shouldn't let anyone belittle you."

She smiled, softly, painfully, and felt compassion for his ignorance. Her friends made her feel awful sometimes – they didn't always say or do the right things for each other – but family never was perfect. And he had no idea how much they meant to her.

"They're not so bad," she whispered, smiling a little in earnestness, and buried herself in his arms. "Just hold me?"

"Okay," he whispered into the coffee-soaked air. "As long as you want, Mina-chan."


	7. Law

**Law**

"Damn, this was great timing," Chief Harris gloated, holding a brandy glass in one hand and smiling at his friend. His wife was standing by the bar and watching to make sure their cups remained full.

"You liked the monster, father?" Phil was standing nearby, and smiled, pleased and hopeful.

"What are you looking so happy about?" Harris shot with a sidelong glance at his son. "It's not like you did a damned thing." He took a swig of his drink and held it out for his wife to refill. He didn't see his son's paling face, or notice when he left the room.

"A monster in Tokyo isn't what I'd call great timing, Henry," Captain John Agawa replied, ignoring Phil. "I'd say it's a bit of a tragedy. People all over the city are panicking about this new threat. Do you really think it's the proper time to be jumping into a big court case? We need all our men -- and our _leaders_ -- on the street taking care of this."

"But we don't need the _senshi_ on the street," Harris replied vehemently. "They already killed one of your men, John. You really want those people back in the line of fire to botch things up again?"

"As I recall, Henry," Agawa replied, "they killed the monster."

"And sacrificed an officer in the process!" Harris towered above him, furious. "You can't just ignore that! And I refuse to forgive it!"

"I'm not saying that they don't deserve this," Agawa placated. "I'm just wondering if this is the best _time_."

"Of course it is," Harris replied. "With the panic over monsters, the people are more likely to _condemn_ these cop-killers. We'd be crazy not to take advantage of the situation."

"Of course, Henry." Agawa looked defeated and tired, dumping the rest of his drink in his mouth and standing. "It's been a pleasant visit." They shook hands and Agawa let himself out the front door, casting a glance to the slim shadow flitting across the yard.

Now where was Phil going?

------------------------

The Senshi didn't ask where Minako went at night, and she didn't feel the need to tell them. Occasionally they'd try to get her to play with them, laughing and joking, but would only get a gentle, placating smile for their trouble.

So it was with uncertain hearts that they went to the scene of another violent attack. A week after Kevin's death, near sunset, someone had destroyed the police chief's home. Like Urawa's building, it had crumbled, and the Senshi knew their duty to check for monsters.

So they showed up, Mercury taking out the cameras before scanning the rubble.

It was strange – only part of the house had collapsed.

The police chief was organizing cleanup crews, and Kunzite and Jadeite were standing to the side, sneaking glances at the Senshi. When the chief noticed the women in black body armor, he stormed straight over.

"You," he hissed. "What are you doing on my property? Get off!"

"Checking for monsters sir," Mars narrowed her eyes behind the face mask. "We'll leave as soon as we're done." Venus said nothing and kept to the back. Usually she took care of these things, but she hadn't been speaking much at all and didn't seem to mind Mars usurping the position until she could get back on her feet.

He stood up to his full height and turned out to be taller than the red senshi. "Get off my property or I'll have you arrested." He slipped an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to her. "Not that I'd mind -- your arrest would only aide my case." His expression was faintly smug. "I'm having charges brought up against you for obstruction of justice and negligence in the death of one of my officers, as well as a personal lawsuit concerning the destruction of my home – so that _next_ time you try and meddle in police matters I can arrest you with the full force of the law behind me. So leave. I'll see you in court."

They left, but stood at a distance for Mercury to finish her scan. When no signs showed monster activity, they returned to the castle.

------------------------

There was a heavy silence when they told the king and queen. Endymion paced back and forth, reading and rereading the summons to court in his hand as if he couldn't quite believe it. Serenity held her daughter close, stroking her pigtails absent-mindedly. The princess knew not to move or complain that her mom's arms were too tight, so she sat like a doll, blank and distantly concerned that her parents were unhappy.

Luna and Artemis in the corner shared a frown, and his arm slid protectively around her.

"Well," the king said when he paused behind his wife's chair. "First thing we need is a lawyer. And I think I know of one."

------------------------

He had long, waving blonde hair and glasses. A guard showed him into a receiving room where the king waited to personally greet him, and Endymion smiled a little to see that he glanced around himself nervously. His arms were full of papers and books.

When he saw the king, he bowed hastily and several books tumbled from his grasp. The king bit back a chuckle and told the young man he could rise. Instead of straightening, though, he dropped to his knees and gathered up his things in a haste that crumpled the papers he was holding.

"Follow me," Endymion smiled softly when he was ready, leading him out and down a hallway to another room where he could work in peace. So this was Zoicite. His guard, his old friend. A Zoicite that didn't remember him, true, but the essence of the man's soul would be the same. Endymion knew that he felt an inexplicable loyalty to his king and country. And glancing back at Zoicite, the king knew that it was going to be a wonderful experience getting to know him again. He was almost giddy with the thought, but had too much dignity to show it.

"You'll work here." They entered a room with bright lights and a wide, smooth table. It was a research room – bookshelves lined the walls and Endymion had made sure that all of the library's law books had been put in here. A tall window was opened to let in fresh air and natural light, and a young woman stood beside it. Endymion gestured to her as Zoicite put his books down on the table. "Ami," she turned to look at them, her blue dress swaying prettily, "will be helping you with anything you need. She's our best mind here at the castle and can do the work of ten assistants. Smarter than me," he winked and she blushed a little, shaking her head at him.

"You're incorrigible," she replied. He only smiled.

"They're trying to get the senshi declared incompetent? Then I'll probably need to talk to the people involved in the incident first," Zoicite replied, nervous. He didn't like the way the king was frowning at that suggestion.

"Yes. Well, Ami can take care of getting anyone for you. She knows how to find everyone in the castle. Is there anything else?"

He shook his head, almost overwhelmed with the project. How the hell had the king chosen _him_! He'd only represented petty criminal defense cases before! Why didn't the king choose one of the Retired lawyers – they were some of the best in the country and had won hundreds of high-profile cases. Why him? He hadn't been asking to get this job – a man just called him up out of the blue and told him he was representing the Sailor Senshi. How was a man supposed to _deal_ with that!

"You've gone over the papers we sent you?" Ami asked him. He looked up at her and breathed carefully. Law. Just focus on that. That was his turf, that was why the king asked for him. So he'd better remember that he was a damn good lawyer and let that get him through this.

"Yes." He picked through his books and then realized that he didn't know what he was looking for. "Maybe we could get the senshi down here for a minute to tell me what happened and get them ready for testimony?"

"I'll fetch them," she replied, looking at him with all the air of a lady looking at a dirty puppy she was supposed to take care of, and left the room softly.

Out of the room, she stormed down the hall and burst into Endymion's office. She put a hand on her hip and glared at him with everything she could muster.

"Yes, Mercury?" he asked, raising one eyebrow of inquiry.

"What the _hell_, Endymion? That kid can't have tried more than a dozen cases in his whole career! Where did you find him and just how much did he beg you to get this job!"

The king was silent for a moment and looked at the wall. "Actually, he didn't want it."

She stared at him. "Then why is he _here_!"

"Because I wanted him here," he replied, standing up and looking particularly intimidating. Ami wanted to shrink away, but wouldn't let herself. "Have you gone over the cases he's taken? The man is brilliant -- he has no confidence, is the problem. Just give him a shot and if you still don't think he can take it on his own, we'll hire Dr. Mikawa to help. But trust me -- I really did my homework here. He hasn't lost a case, and there was never even a reasonable doubt in any of them. And if you'd cared to look, they were some of the most difficult cases I've seen in a very long time. Low profile, but tough. Very tough." He slid a folder across the desk to her and she took it. "For some bedtime reading," he said.

She bowed and walked primly out, flipping her cell phone open and pressing the green button. She was still annoyed with Endymion, but more out of embarrassment now than anything. She _hadn't_ checked this man's background and decided that she would have to do just that.

Makoto answered and came immediately, already transformed into Jupiter. They walked together to the research room.

------------------------

"Dammit," Ami muttered, flipping her cell phone closed. She stood by the window, outlined by the fading pink light, a frown marring the perfect silhouette she made.

"Something wrong?" Zoicite asked, looking up from his papers and stopping the recorded testimony of Jupiter. He'd been going over and over the situation and making notes on a yellow legal pad.

She hesitated, looking at him sitting hunched over the table, and wondered if she should tell him. Then she remembered he was their lawyer. "Venus is missing again. She's been doing this every night . . . since the accident."

He was sympathetic. "She's taking it pretty hard?"

"Yeah."

He looked at her for a moment, at the furrow in her brow and the worry lines stretching her cheeks taut. "Everyone here really loves the senshi, don't they? You really worry about them."

Ami was startled out of her reverie. "I guess so. The senshi . . . they're loyal. They . . . try really hard."

Zoicite smiled at her. "Maybe I should put you on the stand."

Ami laughed a little, but knew he didn't understand why. "One of the maids would be better, I think. There are some uncommonly pretty ones here."

He gave her an odd look at that last, but didn't say anything of it. "Well, what about Mercury? I'd like to get one more testimony in before I go to bed." They'd just finished with Mars.

Ami closed her eyes and stretched her back. "Do you think you can do it without me? I'm kind of tired – and if she's the last one tonight, you can handle it without me."

"Of course," he agreed, admiring her slim form as she arched it back and rubbed her neck. When she looked back at him, he blushed. "Tomorrow we can get Venus and the royal family."

"Thanks. I'll send Mercury right down."

Ami went upstairs and transformed, then jogged all the way back to the office.

Zoicite stood and gave a little bow. "Lady Mercury. If you wouldn't mind," he gestured to a chair.

"I wouldn't," she smiled, and he turned the tape recorder on.


	8. Trial

**Part 8: Trial**

"We'll just transform – no armor. We're not going into battle," Mars told them. Venus stood by looking a little lost, her eyes shining oddly. 

"Aren't we?" Jupiter muttered and got a sharp look from Mars. 

"We are," Mercury said, "but it's a battle of intellects. We won't need extra physical protection." She looked across the room at the young man poring over last-minute papers, brushing the bangs out of his eyes and wearing small reading glasses. "He's our armor now." 

"Is he everything I said?" the king asked Mercury quietly. 

She turned to him and looked thoughtful. "Yes, Endymion. He is. I bow to your superior judgement," she gave him a small smile and curtseyed. He smiled back at her. 

"Get a hold of yourself," Mars hissed to Venus. "We need our leader right now." 

"I'm sorry," Venus replied, ashamed. "I'll try." 

Mars gave her a small smile, trying to look comforting. "We miss you, Minako. It'll be up to you to make the decisions today. I honestly don't want your job." 

She nodded. "Okay." 

"Ladies," Zoicite approached them, bowed low for the royal family, and looked at them all directly. "Shall we go?" 

They climbed into a fortified limousine, Luna and Artemis accompanying them and Mercury checking the area for monsters as they traveled. Zoicite was looking out the window, distracted. 

"You gonna be okay?" Jupiter asked him, smiling. He looked flustered, then smiled back. 

"I just wish Ami had agreed to come. I'd feel better if I had her at the table." 

Mercury sent him a quick glance, then went back to her mini-computer so quickly that Jupiter knew she was listening. 

"You have a crush on her?" she twinkled. "She _is_ a sweet girl. And single." 

He blushed and stammered, "She . . . um . . . she . . . She wouldn't like a guy like me," he laughed a little. "She's too smart." 

"You're smart," Jupiter pressed. "Why don't you ask her out? I guarantee it'll be the first time in _ages_." 

He looked curious. "You know her?" 

"Everyone at the castle knows everyone else. We _have_ been working together forever." 

"Enough of that," Mercury cut in, relieved. "We're here." 

The turnout was massive. These women weren't just superstars or royalty – they were _legend_. Virtually unseen legends. Fan clubs waved signs, cults cut themselves and let their blood drip onto the sidewalk as the limousine passed, and both rich and poor had to be forcibly held back from the courthouse. 

The press was ravenous. As Luna told the young women to stay close together and walk straight inside, the people edged up close, ready for pictures and questions. 

They piled out of the limo and moved like a single being -- Jupiter's hand on Zoicite to keep him from getting lost -- up the stairs and inside the building. 

Venus led. 

They had to wait outside the courtroom for a few minutes and the reporters snapped photos of them from the front stoop, but a line of police kept them from getting any farther. Venus was tapping her foot and avoiding looking at the prosecutor on the other side of the hallway. She felt a hand on her shoulder and Mars smiled at her, pressing down to stop her from moving. 

"Don't let them see your fear," she whispered as the men down the hall started toward them. 

Zoicite intercepted the men and Mercury watched him carefully. They'd talked about this in the study, and she felt bad that he had to do it all himself. 

"My clients request that you do not speak to them outside of the court room. They are under the persuasion that your intentions here are less than honorable." He matched them look for look and found himself facing Chief Harris after the other men had backed down. 

"Zoicite," Harris said, shaking his head and looking like he wanted to spit at something. "_What_ are you doing here?" 

"I'm at work," he replied, eyes cool as green glaciers. 

Harris looked incredulous. "You aren't representing these . . . these . . . _monsters_ against me, are you?" 

"I would appreciate you keeping all derogatory remarks against my clients to a minimum, sir, or I may have cause to accuse you of slander." 

Harris turned purple. "_This_ is the case you couldn't help me because of? You wait," he said, loud and resounding in the quiet corridor, and everyone turned to look at him. "You wait until your mother hears about this -- _you_," he shook his finger, "are _not_ my son." 

And, purple, he stalked off to sit down. 

Silence. 

Zoicite's shoulders were tense as he turned, his eyes apologetic. 

"Zoicite . . . Harris?" Mercury asked. She knew his last name because she'd read his file, but she hadn't put the two men together. 

He shrugged, still a little sheepish. "Does this change anything?" 

"Do you want it to?" Luna asked him. She was imperial and commanding as usual, but there was some sympathy in her eyes. 

He shook his head. "No. I want to do this case. If for no other reason than it's right and I think that my father is picking on you guys." He shook his head, angry. "He never could stop picking on people." 

"Seems like you have some issues with your father," Jupiter murmured as the doors to the courtroom were opened. 

"A few," Zoicite agreed, smiling. 

They trailed in, settling into their seats before selected TV cameras and court painters were allowed to enter. Just behind them sat supporters and friends like Luna and Artemis, and Venus noticed Kunzite, Jadeite, and a man with long, wavy brown hair sitting behind Chief Harris and the prosecutor. She saw Jupiter, on the other side of Mars, stiffen and whisper something to Mercury. 

"All rise for the honorable Judge Kiame." The bailiff turned, straight, as the judge came in. Her shiny black hair was short and the eyes behind her glasses were sharp and to the point. 

She looked down at the senshi for a long, assessing moment, then sat. Rustles and movement followed as everyone in the courtroom took their seats. "This is somewhat of a momentous occasion," she said, and the video cameras trained in on her. "I won't lie and say that I haven't been wondering about the Sailor Senshi myself – what you are like, where your loyalties lie – but I cannot give you leeway under the law because of your excellent service to the country and the world -- though I _am_ mindful of it. Do you understand this?" 

Venus nodded, calm and speaking for all of them. If there was any strain under the surface, only the other senshi knew. "We do." 

"Good," she nodded. "And prosecutor. I understand that the plaintiff is our very own police chief – and I must warn him as well. If this turns out to be some sort of a witch hunt," she looked down at him severely from her place above the court, a look meant to make him sweat, "I will see that you never get reelected in this town for the entirety of your career." 

Harris blanched a little but nodded just as solemnly. 

She looked at the press. "I also understand that on a momentous occasion such as this, the people want to view all of the proceedings. However, if you so much as _dare_ to make a circus of my court, you will be out on your ear without a peep of what's going on inside this room for the rest of the trial. Do _you_ understand?" Uncertain looks and heads slowly bobbing. "Then we may begin." She sat back and called the lawyers to make their first statements. 

"What do you do for a living, Mr. Smith?" 

"I'm a private investigator," he replied, voice like dark satin. 

"What projects have you been working on lately?" 

"I've been gathering information on the Sailor Senshi for Police Chief Harris." 

The prosecutor nodded. "And what information do you bring to us today?" 

"Photographs, sir, of the tragedy." He lay a manila folder in front of him which the prosecutor picked up and placed in front of the judge. 

"Your honor," Zoicite said, standing, "we were not informed that any photographs existed. We would like a continuance to take this and any _other_ evidence we may not have been aware of into consideration." 

The judge nodded. "Of course. Court adjourned until two 'o' clock tomorrow afternoon." She banged her gavel. "Will the lawyers please see me in my chambers?" 

Zoicite nodded and gathered his papers, putting them into a briefcase. 

"You will not bring out surprise evidence in my courtroom," she told the prosecutor when they three were gathered in her chamber, glaring at him from behind her little glasses. "Nor surprise witnesses. You are to show _all_ of your findings to Mr. Harris here or I will hold you in contempt." 

The prosecutor nodded, looking sour. "Of course, your honor." 

"Good. Get out of my sight." 

Nephrite went to the castle at night, knowing she'd be there, waiting. He wore his trench coat and knocked tensely on the door to the kitchens. 

No one answered, so he tried the knob. It turned easily in his hand. 

"Makoto?" he called. His voice was barely more than a murmur, though he'd meant for it to be strong and fearless. 

"I knew," she said from the dark, "that I'd have to do this face-to-face." He couldn't see her because the lights were out and his eyes hadn't adjusted. It was eerie, listening to her disembodied voice coming at him from the darkness -- the only light came from the open door behind him. "But it's harder than I thought." She gave a small, cheerless laugh. 

"Makoto, where are you?" he whispered. A light turned on then -- only an oven light, but he could see well enough to close the door behind him. She was on a stool facing the counter and looking at the wall as if it held something morbidly fascinating. Her face was shown in dark profile. 

"I knew you were a detective, you know. But I didn't think . . ." she shook her head. "I couldn't have guessed you were trying to find damning evidence on the Sailor Senshi. I couldn't . . . I didn't think you'd _use_ me like that." There was a low, broken note in her voice that made him stay where he was -- a guilt that paralyzed. 

"I didn't," he started, but didn't know what he would say. 

"You didn't betray me?" she asked, still deceptively calm. "You didn't use me so that you could hurt people I care about? Tell me you didn't, Nephrite, and I'll believe you. Make me believe you didn't lie to me. Please." The light caught in her tears and brought them out with a diamond-like brilliance that cut him. 

"I'm sorry," he whispered. 

"Get out," she said, bending her head and clenching her fists in her lap. When he tried to speak, she screamed it. "_Get out!_" 

He did. 

"_Harris?_" It was said with quiet intensity. 

He cringed. He'd hoped Ami would take it better. 

"When were you planning on breaking the news? Or do you like dragging everyone into your sordid family affairs?" 

He brushed his bangs away, distressed. "I wasn't doing that!" 

She turned, regal and pitiless in her blue dress, toward the window. "Of course, I don't just blame you. I've given the king a piece of my mind as well. If he thinks to win this by petty baiting and family feuds, he's stupider than I've ever given him credit for." 

"Ami!" Zoicite was shocked. She dared speak about her king like that? And she'd said things like that to his _face?!_ "Of course not. I'm not some toy lawyer, Ami. The king knows as well as I that this must be won in the courtroom -- fairly -- and that playing me off my dad isn't going to do anything but make him more determined. If anything, knowing my dad, he's twice as ready to put you all behind bars for stealing me out from under his case." 

She gave him such a fierce look that he was taken aback. She seemed to grow taller, unearthly in her beauty and bearing. "Where do your loyalties lie, Zoicite?" she asked him in an imperial voice. "With your king or with your father?" 

He took a step toward her, eyes burning, and said very firmly, "I have _never_ loved my father. All my loyalties go to Endymion." 

She looked at him for one more moment in that tall, royal way, and then seemed to shrink. Her voice, when she spoke, was soft, and her eyes were cast down. "I just needed to know." 

He nodded, coming down from his adrenaline high. "Fair enough." 

"I _don't_ like that judge." Harris was brooding to Nephrite. He'd made the trip to Nephrite's apartment this time because his house was under heavy repairs. He and his family were staying in a nice hotel until it was finished. "She's too . . ." 

"Unbiased?" Nephrite offered, cynical. Harris didn't seem to notice his bad mood. 

"Yeah." 

"Deal with it," Nephrite told him, sliding the police chief a glare. "Your stupid vendetta cost me a woman. Not worth it, if you ask me." 

Harris stared. 

"I'm done," he said as if Harris had a hearing problem. "Find someone else." 

"One more job." Harris' eyes were shrewd and they sparked when they met Nephrite's -- like flint on steel. "I'll make it worth your while." 

He didn't give in right away. "What is it?" 

"The dead man's girlfriend. No one knows her current phone number or address, and I want you to find her. I want her to testify because of the sympathy she'll bring to my case." 

Nephrite looked at him long and hard, then sighed. "All right." 

**Author's Notes:** Please note that I am not a lawyer and get most of my information from _Law and Order_. grin So if there were any technical problems, I apologize. 

I should mention that Phil looks about 17 but, because of his mental handicap, acts about 5. 

And I tried to be consistent with technicals, such as age, but let me brief you on it. The Senshi, king, and queen are over 1,000 years old apiece (see: Crumble). Kunzite is 700 years old (see: Mystery) but looks 25. That means that in the first chapter, when Endymion asked Serenity to bring his generals back, they had been ruling for around 300 years, and that all of the Generals are the same age. Phil is probably about 500, since he's Zoicite's younger brother. 

Everyone has been alive for a very long time, and that means that the senshi will probably not remember the generals as they fought them all those years ago. Memory tends to make things fuzzy. That, plus the fact that these men have their own lives and aren't trying to kill them makes it very unlikely that they'll be recognized. 

Yes, I was waiting this long to bring Zoicite in as a lawyer. It was very much on purpose. 

And I'm using the General's old names because I like them best -- no weird, mystical reason. I like keeping characters clear, especially since my fiance won't be able to tell them apart otherwise (I'm trying to help him differentiate between the four men, and suddenly changing their names would throw him _totally_ off track). 

Hope that helps.


	9. Break

**Break**

It was the second evening of trial and they'd spent the afternoon rebutting the pictures. "There is no evidence of blame in these images," Zoicite had said, and the judge had remained neutral.

"We'll leave copies with the plaintiff and the defense and keep a set here," she had said, and gave the photographs to her bailiff. While the pictures had shown action and occasional blurs of light, they were taken from a disadvantage – the photographer could not get very close to the scene and the constant movement made even the clearest figures blurry.

That evening in the research room, they were reading through the books from the shelves. Ami had never been very interested in law and so hadn't read most of them – Zoicite, though, was in heaven. He'd never seen such a collection and was pouring through every volume and taking notes on a yellow legal pad.

She snuck a few glimpses at him, smiling and humming to himself as he scribbled sharp black words on the yellow paper. The lamplight touched his hair and brought out red highlights from the gold. His glasses kept sliding down his nose and he pushed them back up absently, absorbed in what he was reading.

Eventually, he put his pen down and stretched. His eyes were closed in the ecstasy of easing tight muscles and she took the moment to admire his long, lean body. When his eyes opened, he looked at her inquisitively. "Food?"

She nodded with a faint smile. "Food."

They went to the kitchen together, sitting at a counter across from the busy chef Makoto, who turned and popped an appetizer into Ami's mouth for her opinion. When the smaller girl smoothly requested the entire tray, Makoto laughed and gave them to her, willing and able to make more before dinner.

Ami and Zoicite dug into the tidbits while a lesser cook made them sandwiches, and Makoto talked to them while she prepared the royal family's food. She asked about their research and progress with the case, eyes shadowed when she thought about it, but was reassured with their confidence of victory – a confidence that was far more illusory than they let on.

When their sandwiches were set before them – crisp lettuce, tomato, and turkey on wheat bread for Ami and thick slices of sourdough trapping hot mustard and roast beef for Zoicite – a side door to the kitchen opened and a man with long brown hair stepped inside, eyes sliding hesitantly to the familiar woman by the cutting board.

He nodded politely to Ami and Zoicite and sat down, not willing to surprise Makoto with a six-inch blade in her hand. Especially not after their fight.

Neither Ami nor Zoicite were brave enough to introduce themselves, but Nephrite recognized Zoicite from court and struck up a conversation.

There was instant chemistry. Ami felt left out of the conversation when Zoicite, engrossed in the topic at hand and laughing at a joke, turned his full attention toward Nephrite, shoulders facing the man so that Ami could only see his back.

Refusing to acknowledge the tears prickling her eyes, she left the rest of her sandwich uneaten and slipped out of the kitchen, going back to the research room where she could bury her unhappiness in the papers and texts.

Makoto, this whole time, had only glanced behind her at the sound of his voice and then turned disdainfully back to her celery. She would have him thrown out of the kitchen the moment Zoicite left, she fantasized, and he would land on his butt in the grass.

------------------------

"Why did you come back?" Makoto asked without turning around, a peculiar mixture of softness and venom in her voice. Nephrite was admiring the way her skirt moved with her hips and the long, tanned columns of her legs.

"I couldn't give you up without a fight," he said softly, eyes catching in the waves of her hair and caressing her.

"You should have thought of that before you betrayed us."

"I did my job, Mako," he told her, leaning forward earnestly. "What was I supposed to do? It doesn't affect you anyway – what are the Sailor Senshi to normal people like us? You can get a job at any of the restaurants in town you want. Head chef for the Queen doesn't make for a bad reference."

She turned around and her eyes were snapping. There were so many things she wanted to yell at him that she was speechless for a moment. Then she took a deep breath, calmed herself, and decided to say none of it. "I told you I was done with you the other night. Get out."

"Mako," he pleaded, but she just threatened to call the guards. "Fine," he bit out, fury in his eyes. "But if you wake up all alone at night and wish you hadn't done this, don't think you can just call me up and make me come crawling back."

"I wouldn't dream of it," she replied, dead serious.

There were angry tears in both their eyes as he left.

------------------------

Minako went to Kunzite's every night. The third morning as they drank coffee together, he'd given her a key to his apartment, "in case he had to work late."

The night after the first trial, eight days since she began sleeping at his apartment, he woke up to a warm, sniffling body crawling into bed next to him. She snuggled against him and fell asleep quickly, but it was an uncomfortable night for Kunzite because he couldn't roll over or move without getting tangled in all her long blonde hair – but as it was, the second night he just grabbed a ribbon off of his My-Size Sailor V doll and had it ready to tie her hair back himself when she joined him. It was too dark in his room to see her expression when he did, and she just curled into him again and went to sleep. (He might have thought those nightly visits a little erotic if she hadn't gotten snot all over his pillow, crying in her sleep.)

But even with her hair tied back, it still fanned out and got stuck in his armpits. When he woke up to the smell of coffee and a precisely folded red ribbon joining the dried snot on his pillow, he joined Minako in the kitchen and looked at the offending blondness sullenly.

"Tonight, I'm learning how to braid," he muttered, and Minako laughed. The sound drove away his annoyance and shot a pleasant contentment through him. She hadn't laughed like that in days.

"Do you watch the trials?" he asked her one evening when the lights were out and she was curled next to him under the warm blankets. Neither of them could sleep, so they had been talking softly in the dark.

"I've seen them," she replied, her voice husky with repressed emotion.

"Hn." He wanted to reach out and hold her, pull her close, but refrained. "Do you think what they're doing is right?"

"Who?"

"Anybody. Chief Harris, the Senshi, anybody."

She paused for a long moment. "They _did_ kill Kevin," she replied uncertainly.

He was annoyed. "Right. I guess I forgot." He rolled away from her and closed his eyes.

"Kunzite," she pushed herself up on her elbow. "You don't know the Sailor Senshi. They might be jerks -- you can't let what you _think_ of them blind you to what they _are_."

"And what are they, huh?" he asked, sitting up. "You haven't seen them, Minako. You didn't see Sailor Venus catch Kevin's body, or the way her hand shook when she touched him. She was _upset_."

"For herself!" Minako cried back, angry. "She's vain and arrogant, just like all of them! Just afraid of how much trouble she's going to get into!"

"If she was that vain, why would she be afraid? She'd theorize that nothing could touch her – I mean, she's the queen's personal guard!"

"And the queen is helping her, but it's not really doing any good, is it?" she lashed back. "Maybe she _deserves_ to be punished for killing him."

Kunzite growled and grabbed Minako, burying his head in her throat and pushing her legs apart with his knee as he lay her back, kissing and biting and growling into her peach-sweet skin. "God, Minako, don't argue with me," he rumbled, taking his frustration out on her physically.

She only moaned in response.

Eventually, though, he stopped kissing her and just held her lightly, refusing to give in to his own body's demands. Somehow, he knew that this had changed things between them and that her crawling into his bed would not be so innocuous an act in the future.

The next night, she softly took up the couch again, but Kunzite had one parting request. With a gentle smile, he asked to braid her hair. She sat obediently on the arm of the couch as he stood behind her, fingers moving carefully through the long golden strands. She closed her eyes at the feel of his hands, gentle and almost caressing, and suppressed a shiver. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea. Her breath caught when he placed a soft kiss on her throat and reluctantly left her. She didn't open her eyes until he was gone, and had to concentrate on returning her breathing to normal.

It was hard for both of them to sleep that night.

------------------------

The cameras were hard, black, and unblinking as Detective Kunzite took the stand.

"Detective, you were at the scene of your partner's death, correct?"

"Yes, sir," Kunzite replied. He was cool and imperturbable.

"Can you tell the court, in your own words, what happened?"

He paused to gather himself, knowing they would ask him this, and replied, "The guns weren't doing anything." He glanced up, eyes hard and grey, and his voice traveled like water back to the past. He saw again the great black beast, sizzling with energy and swinging its great jowls to crush helpless pedestrians. "We unloaded clip after clip, but it just annoyed the monster. Kevin was beside me, cursing – he could curse like a sailor's whore – and I had to reload." He paused, lost in his memories. "The senshi arrived and took it farther from us – they were doing well enough. There were no pedestrians left in the vicinity. Not alive, anyway." Another pause. "I don't know what happened first – whether Venus shot at it or whether it picked up Kevin, but it suddenly had him and held him up here," he put his hand to his forehead. "Whether to throw him at them or shield itself, I don't know, but." He turned his head away, a bitter flavor in his mouth.

"Detective Kunzite," the prosecutor said after a full minute of silence, going back and picking up a folder, then brandishing it. "Can you tell the court the name of the woman who has been staying with you every night for the past several weeks?"

Kunzite looked up, startled. They hadn't told him about this – they hadn't said anything about bringing Minako into it. What did she have to do with anything?

"You must answer," the judge told him.

He glanced up at her, his face blank, but he was starting to pull himself back together. "Aino Minako," he told the prosecutor, still stunned.

"Will the court please note that the girlfriend of the deceased is named Aino Minako. Detective, did you know that she was seeing your partner when he died?"

There were murmurs all through the room and the Sailor Senshi looked at each other, trying not to show their surprise. Venus only looked straight ahead, at Kunzite. Beside her, Zoicite did the same, frowning slightly and trying to predict where they would go with this. He didn't like what he came up with.

Kunzite shook his head to clear it. "Yes, I'd met her a little while before."

"And yet you had no qualms about having a liaison with her that very night. You must have been jealous, then?"

Kunzite flushed with anger, half standing and growling at the prosecutor, "There were no liaisons! I let her into my home because she needed somewhere to go!"

"She couldn't go home?" He raised one eyebrow, skeptical.

"She didn't want to go home." He looked at the judge desperately. "What does this have to do with anything?"

Zoicite stood up briefly. "I agree, your honor. There seems to be no point. I'd also like to contest the fact that the defense was not aware of this turn the questions would take."

The judge nodded. "Make your point quickly, councilor. And afterwards we'll have an hour's recess for the defense to arrange their strategy." She leaned forward, giving him a blistering glare. "I warned you about springing surprises on the court. I don't like surprises."

"Yes, your honor. Forgive me – we were only just briefed of this information ourselves."

"Then wrap it up."

"Has Aino Minako resided _only_ on your couch during her stay, detective?"

He paused. "No," he said reluctantly. "Sometimes during the night, she gets . . . scared or sad. I'm not sure which. But she's slept in my bed a few times."

"Alone?"

"Like I said, I think she was scared. She didn't want to be alone." He was getting edgy and angry.

"So, to clarify, she slept in your bed with you?"

"Yes," he grated.

"Have you ever had sexual relations with Aino Minako?"

"No," he replied, a miasma of fury coming off of him that only Mars could see. The prosecutor took a step back. "And I resent the implications. She's a friend – I'd never touch a grieving woman."

"Hurry up, councilor. You're testing my patience," the judge said. "Get to the point, _now_."

"Detective, do you have romantic feelings toward Aino Minako?" His voice was clipped and tense now, trying to hurry.

Kunzite glared even harder and struggled against the choking feeling in his chest and throat. "What!"

He repeated the question.

The judge told him to answer.

"I . . . You can't expect me to . . ."

The prosecutor looked at him. "Yes or no, detective."

"Yes," he said finally. Venus looked down, her breath constricting, but nobody noticed.

"And how long have you had these? Since before Kevin's death?"

"I . . ." he shook his head. "She's a good woman."

He rephrased the question. "Did you love her before your partner's death?"

Kunzite met his gaze and the grey eyes were stronger – like chips of steel. "She's a good woman. Yes, I started to realize that before Kevin died. But I would _never_ do anything to hurt my friend, alive or dead."

The whole room was quiet, watching the fire in his eyes and the tense bunching of muscles in his body.

"Have you ever met Sailor Venus?" the prosecutor asked.

"No," Kunzite replied, settling back a little at the change of topic but still wary.

The prosecutor looked surprised. "But your room," he said, pulling a glossy photo from his folder and showing it to Kunzite before passing it on to the judge, "is a shrine to her."

Kunzite's aura flamed so suddenly that Mars flinched. His body was stiff with tension – he was horrified, but more than that, he was angry. Furious. "You went . . . in my home?" His voice was quiet and dangerous and made the prosecutor step back again. "You went . . . in my home."

"Can we get someone to restrain him?" the prosecutor said, his voice tight with nervousness.

"Bailiff," the judge said softly. "Stand near." Louder, she said. "We'll investigate if these were taken illegally. If they were," and her words were for Kunzite alone, "they will feel the full force of my anger." She watched him calm down a little and then looked at the white-faced prosecutor. "While this would all make a very good soap opera, I will not have my court used as a tool to provoke witnesses – so, councilor, you will tell me _what_ exactly your purpose is here. Because your questions seem to have no relevance to the case, and I'm about to throw you and this whole testimony out."

"The purpose, your honor, is to prove that Detective Kunzite had a motive in aiding the premeditated murder of his partner. We think that he was an accomplice." His cool demeanor was soon shattered.

"_What!_" Kunzite lunged from his chair and the bailiff moved to restrain him, but the detective didn't move any farther than the railing of the stand, where he leaned and gripped it as if he'd like it to be the prosecutor's neck. "_You think I would hurt Kevin!_" he roared. "_You think I would hurt my partner!_"

The judge was banging her gavel. "Order!" she cried. "Order! Detective, SIT DOWN! I will have order in this court!"

The prosecutor was hiding behind some guards, the white showing in his eyes.

The bailiff, very carefully, gripped Kunzite's arms and whispered for him to please sit back down. It took a moment for the tall man to calm the tension in his body and take his seat again.

"We will begin a _two_ hours recess now, and you will continue your questions afterward." She banged her gavel and people began to shift and murmur.

"Come with me, detective," she said, and had the bailiff escort him into her chamber. Soon, the lawyers had joined them as well. "Detective Kunzite," she said, sitting down behind her desk. "You _will_ keep your temper in my courtroom. Otherwise, I will have you arrested for contempt. Do you understand?"

"Yes, your honor." He bowed his head.

"Gentlemen," she said. "The defense, under my supervision, will have an hour to talk to and question the witness. However, I'm allowing you all this extra hour to calm down and get your questions lined up. I want everyone ready and _calm_ when you get back in here. Do you understand?"

"Yes, your honor," they said.

"Be back here in an hour," she repeated and released them.

------------------------

"Detective," the prosecutor said, standing with hands folded, "you are a fan of the _Sailor V_ TV show, correct?"

"Yes," Kunzite replied, calm again.

"So if you met the girl who played Sailor V, you would naturally know her immediately, correct?"

"No, sir," Kunzite replied. "Because Aino Minako played Sailor V, and I didn't recognize her right away." The crowd murmured, but one bang of the judge's gavel and they quieted.

"When did you realize who she was?"

"When she first came by my apartment. I was walking her to Kevin's and I'd forgotten some paperwork for him, so she was there briefly and," he sighed and smirked, "she saw my room."

"Your room with the shrine to Sailor Venus," the prosecutor clarified.

"My room with my Venus and V _collection_," Kunzite replied easily. "I'm also a fan of Sailor V."

The prosecutor accepted this with a thinning of his lips. "And what was her reaction?"

Kunzite couldn't repress the smile, folding his arms across his chest. Dryly, he told the man, "She laughed."

"And that didn't upset you?"

He shook his head. "It embarrassed me. But I wasn't angry. She was . . . curious. I answered any questions she had and it was . . . okay."

"So you found out who she was _before_ Kevin died. And you weren't jealous of him? He was dating one of your idols."

Kunzite shook his head again. "He was dating an actress. My idol was the _real_ V. The show just gave me something to latch onto. I was more interested in the girl they never showed on camera."

The prosecutor frowned. "No more questions."

"The defense may question the witness," the judge said.

Zoicite got up and brought his yellow legal pad with him. Frowning down at it, he ignored the cameras and the crowd and brought his focus on one quiet, self-contained individual.

Zoicite smiled. "Detective. In your opinion, was the death of your partner and friend an accident?"

Kunzite nodded, feeling at ease with this lawyer. "I'm sure it was."

"Objection!" the prosecutor cried, standing up. "He's biased."

Zoicite turned to the judge. "Your honor, I believe that Detective Kunzite has more loyalty to a long-trusted friend and ally than to a woman that – while he very much admires her – he has never met before in his entire life."

"Kunzite," the judge said, turning to him. "If Sailor Venus – or Sailor V – approached Kevin and killed him in cold blood, would you defend her?"

"No, your honor. I admire V and Venus because of their just hearts. If they proved capable of injustice, I would lose all respect for them."

She nodded. "Overruled."

"Detective," Zoicite said, going on, "do you know of an organization known as The Official Sailor V Fan Club?"

"I do."

"Could you define for the court your level of association with the club?"

Kunzite fought a smile. "I'm the treasurer."

More murmurs among the crowd and the black-eyed cameras kept staring.

"Your honor, I am placing before you testimonies of the president, vice president, and secretary of The Official Sailor V Fan Club. In these, they attest to the normalcy and health of Detective Kunzite's interest in both Sailor V and Sailor Venus. They describe him as a harmless fan and personal collector. I would have had a psychologist examine him, but we didn't have time." He glanced back at the table and his father glared at him over steepled fingers.

She nodded and flipped through them. Zoicite allowed her to read one or two – they were short – and she finally allowed him to go on.

"Sir, how would you define your interest in Sailor V and Sailor Venus?"

Kunzite let out a breath. "A long-term hobby. I put my spare time into it – collecting books, toys, photos."

"So you would consider your hobby – and your interest in these two legendary women – healthy?"

"It keeps me from being bored." When Zoicite kept looking at him, he said, "Yes. I would consider it healthy."

Zoicite nodded and looked at his notebook. "Sir, I've had each of the senshi draw me a diagram of the battle scene. Would you look over these four images and tell me if they are correct?" He handed Kunzite a packet of four drawings. One of them had drawn the monster in fancy scrawls and the senshi in dramatic poses. Another had the monster as a big ugly blob with fire coming out of its mouth and the policemen as stick figures in the corner. The senshi were stick figures with their symbols scribbled in their blank round heads. Still another was clinically correct, marking out the proportions of figure and the distances between buildings, people, and the monster.

He closed his eyes and tried to remember the scene – where everyone had been. He looked back at the clean, well-mapped one. "This one is the best," he said, and tried to hand them back.

Zoicite had him keep them for a moment. "But is it _right_?" he asked. "Sailor Mercury tried to recreate the scene, but _you_ have to tell me if it's right."

"Yes," Kunzite finally said. "Yes. I could barely see Venus. My line of sight was better than Kevin's because he was further behind the monster."

"Do you think, from those angles, that it would be hard for Venus to notice the monster reaching behind itself?"

"It had to turn, but it never looked at us. Just grabbed. Its arms were amazingly long. But it kept looking at Venus the whole time and when it swung back around," he paused, closing his eyes and thinking hard. The whole room was quiet. "Kevin wasn't in Venus' line of sight in the first place. Even if she attacked it after it grabbed him, it hadn't brought him up yet. In fact, she probably attacked right as it was bringing him forward. He wasn't in the way yet." He shook his head. "But whether she was able to see him or just didn't notice him, I don't know."

"How did Sailor Venus react when she realized that she'd killed a police officer?" His voice was gentle.

"She was shaking – she cradled his head. There are things you can tell from facial expression, you know, but sometimes you can tell even more through posture. She was . . . I won't even say 'distraught' because it's not right." He thought for a moment. "She was in shock. She was grieving."

"Thank you, detective. That's all, your honor." Zoicite took the diagrams and gave them to the judge, leaving it open to Sailor Mercury's.


	10. Corrode

**Corrode**

It was dark, and Phil realized that the apartment complex was staring at him. He shivered and glared at it, gathering his energy as if for an attack. Black miasma came in thick, swirling patterns around his head, then reached out dark tendrils to snake past the locked doors and windows.

He hated the senshi. He hated the people. Hate. Hate. Hate . . .

Miasma whipped the buildings around him, lashing into them and cutting the people inside as he began to run. He HATED them! The violence and pain rose in him, choking, and he let it crash onto the sleeping minds around him.

The black energy radiated out like a sun from the center of the city, and Phil cradled the bruise on his face, bitter and cold.

------------------------

"Oh my God." The news hadn't stopped running all day, and the senshi were gathered around it. Even Haruka and Michiru had called to say they were coming back to town.

The newswoman had smooth dark hair and almond-shaped eyes. Makoto stared at her, dazed. "How could this happen?" she asked the silent room. A news tag at the bottom of the screen kept scrolling the words "City Threatened: Murder in Crystal Tokyo."

". . . shocked by the sudden outbreak of violence in our fair city . . ."

Ami slipped off of the couch, her expression clouded. Her eyes remained on the screen even as she moved to leave. "I'm going to see if Zoicite is okay," she murmured. The other girls didn't even bother to make the sly comments that they would have normally.

He was in his room, and he let her in with relief. "Have you heard?" he asked in the hushed tone that everyone had been using all morning – the kind of low voice that is common at funerals. The kind of voice that is afraid to wake the dead.

"Yes," she replied, slipping past him and locking onto the reporter on his television. "It's horrible, isn't it?" She shuddered a little, hugging herself. Zoicite slipped an arm around her, as much for his comfort as for hers.

"Let's sit down."

Ami nodded. She noticed that he smelled like mint, but was dismayed that she couldn't enjoy it. She was too upset.

". . . begs the question," the reporter was saying, "where is our police force? And _where _is our queen?"

Ami bit her lip. "Serenity will have to make a speech. It's the only logical choice. And it will calm the people to know that she's taken a personal interest."

"Of course," Zoicite agreed, turning the volume down. He didn't let go of her, though. Instead, he looked at her for a moment and asked, "Are you okay? This is pretty terrible stuff."

She shook her head as if to clear it and smiled up at him, their faces closer than she had realized. "I've," she said, distracted by his proximity, "lived through some pretty bad things, back when Crystal Tokyo was first being formed. This is . . . shocking . . . but not really new."

He glanced away, then looked at her eyes, searching them. "Why don't you come to trial with me?" he asked. His voice was low and intimate because of how close they were, and the news created a sort of soft, humming background noise. "You know I want you there."

"And you know that I'm camera shy," she replied, blushing. "I'd never be able to go in a court room with all of those people staring at me."

"But you wouldn't have to say anything," he pleaded. "I just need you there to support me."

"You're doing a good job on your own." His face was so close to hers. It was hard to think, hard to breathe.

"I could be better with you," he said, and she had never realized how _green_ his eyes were before. They were very green, very intense, and she could smell mint again. Maybe it was his aftershave . . . "I could be better at everything with you."

It took a moment for that to sink in, and then her heart gave a strange, quick throb. "Zoicite," she whispered, tilting her face up to his without thinking. And then his lips were on hers and she was kissing him back and everything, absolutely everything, became heady and wonderful. She clasped him around the neck and he pulled her closer, pressing her slim body against his. Her lips parted and, without thinking, he slipped his tongue in. She met it with her own and he moaned, ripping his mouth away to kiss her neck. Ami was foggy, his kisses disarming her, and her head rolled back. A rough, sweet ache had started somewhere in her abdomen and she ran a hand over his long hair, her fingers playing with the soft curls on the nape of his neck.

She glanced with hazy, half-open eyes at the TV.

It was like cold water pouring down her spine. She gasped and stiffened in his arms and tears came to her eyes. He drew back, following her gaze to the screen, and sighed. He pulled her closer with one arm and nestled her against him, kissing her on the head.

"I forgot," she murmured. "How could I forget?" She was miserable. Her city was falling apart, and she was making out with a guy like some silly, hormone-crazed teenager.

"Sometimes it's good to forget," he replied, brushing her hair off of her forehead. He still seemed more interested in her than in the TV. "Ami," he said after a moment.

She looked at him and saw the worry in his eyes, the concern for her welfare and the confusion about what had just happened. He didn't want to presume that she had meant for that to happen, or that she had wanted it.

"I care about you," he said. "I'd like to . . . have . . . a . . . a relationship," he looked away, at the carpet, his hold on her waist becoming weak and unsure, "with you. I mean, I know I'm not . . ."

"Zoicite," she cut him off gently. "It's okay." Her smile was gentle and soothing. Then she blushed, but she didn't look away from him. "I'd like that too." Her voice was almost a whisper from embarrassment, but then she reached up and kissed him. "I feel bad," she said after a moment, snuggling into his side. "I ought to be more upset about all of this, but."

"But it's just so nice to have you," he finished for her. They kissed again, briefly, and he turned the news back up.

------------------------

The crowds around the palace were thick and tense, angry and frightened and needing their queen. A conference had been set for that day, and the king and queen would come out of the palace to speak to the people.

Faces in the crowd were dark and murmuring, and only lightened the smallest fraction as the castle doors opened and the royal couple emerged, the king rich and resplendent in his violet cloak and mask, and the queen shining with her own pure light. They were everything good and pure and right with the city.

"Why can't the stupid jerks see it?" a tall blonde muttered, her arms folded and eyes tracing the angry lines in the faces around her.

"Calmly, Haruka," her companion murmured, placing a graceful hand on her arm. "They're scared, and they need reassurance."

"But it's like they're _blaming_ Neo-Queen Serenity," she hissed. "She didn't have anything to do with this. I mean, I'm surprised it took this long for human nature to reassert itself and people to start acting like jackasses again."

The other woman sighed, weary. "It's starting, dear."

The queen was speaking, her face smooth and lovely and unlined. Her eyes filled for her people, and she struggled to retain a regal demeanor. She felt the steady presence of her husband beside her and Luna and Artemis behind her. She breathed. "We are deeply disturbed by the recent news of violence and murder in the city. But we are not frightened." Her voice strengthened, and she seemed to stand taller, brilliant and beautiful. "Crystal Tokyo has gone through worse – much worse – but has never fallen. We have never crumbled, given in, or lost hope. And today, we will not crumble. We will not give in. And we will NOT LOSE HOPE!"

The people cheered, but there was an undercurrent of dark energy that had Haruka shifting uneasily on her feet.

"EVER!" The queen's voice rang out, clear and strong. "We will stand united, and we will not accept murder, violence, or hatred in our city. For love!" the queen cried, and there was a rallying surge of energies from the crowd, good and bad mixed together. "And for JUSTICE!"

A small projectile flew through the air and shattered on the queen. For a moment, everything went silent and everyone stared at the red seeping over her gown. The queen looked down, stunned, and Haruka, terrified, thought it was blood.

"A tomato," Michiru said, her head up and her eyes steely with fury. "They threw a tomato."

A loud shout of "Down with the queen!" rang out, and the two women began to run, plowing their way through the crowd until they could transform. More rotten food was being thrown, but Luna and Artemis were quick to react, getting the royal couple inside the palace. The Inner Senshi got to the queen just a little bit before Haruka and Michiru did.

Serenity was in shock, her eyes glassy and unfocused. The Inner Senshi had one arm and Endymion had the other. They were all trying to talk to her, sooth her, but when she saw her two old friends approaching, horror and sympathy in their eyes, she threw herself on Haruka and began to cry – huge, soul-wrenching sobs.

Haruka held her shuddering queen close to her breast, the draft in the corridor fluttering her senshi skirt. She looked at the king over the queen's head. "What the hell," she asked him in a voice of cold fury, "has been going on around here?"

------------------------

"Why the hell won't she testify?" Harris growled. His home had been repaired and they were in his office. It had been a long day, trying to placate the people about the murders and assure them that he had everything under control. He'd ordered the police station to stay open at all times until this latest craze died down. He hadn't even had time to turn on the news all day.

"Maybe because she doesn't have a vendetta against the senshi like you do," Nephrite observed, moody. He was tired, annoyed, and ready to get out of there.

"Bah," Harris answered him, frustrated. But he didn't have anything else to say to that. "Well, at least we know where she is. You've done a pretty good job." He picked an envelope off his desk and handed it to Nephrite, who slipped it into his jacket and turned to go. "I'll pay you double if you get her to testify."

"No thanks," Nephrite replied and walked out, proud of his restraint. A few weeks ago, he would have jumped at the chance to double an already impressive sum. Now . . . "Damn woman," he muttered. He looked up at the velvety darkness, where clouds obscured the stars, and felt empty. "Damn woman," he repeated heavily, and walked on.

Inside, Harris wasn't feeling much better. He picked up a glass paperweight and threw it into one of his mirrors. The crash was satisfying and he tried to steady his breathing. "Damn that Aino girl. I should have asked Nephrite to dig up more dirt on her." He grunted to himself and got his coat. "Maybe I can persuade her myself." Turning, he almost tripped over his youngest son. He cursed and swore at the boy, smacking him upside the head for his stupidity.

"Hate Aino? Hate senshi?" Phil asked, his eyes shining a little above his frown. Harris had given him the bruise on his cheek the other day, after that idiot Judge Kiame had been so lenient with Detective Kunzite. She should have arrested him for his behavior in court.

"Get out of my way, you idiot!" Harris yelled, brushing the boy aside and slipping his coat on as he walked. "Dumb as a post," he muttered to himself. He unlocked his car and got inside, slamming the car door shut. He had the address of Kunzite's apartment, and he made his way through the dark streets, wondering why so many people were out prowling at this time of night. It made him nervous, and, for the first time in years, he locked his car when he left it.

Kunzite's apartment was not in a beautiful building. It was functional, and Harris didn't quite understand how anyone could stand to live without mahogany walls.

Kunzite was boiling a pot of ramen when Harris knocked, and his eyes narrowed when he saw who was at the door. He stood in the way, blocking the police chief's path into the apartment, and asked, "What do you want?"

"I'm looking for Aino Minako. I'd like to speak with her."

Kunzite glowered. "She's not here."

Harris tilted his head back, scoffing. "Of course she's here. Please, I'll only take a moment of her time."

Kunzite's grip on the door tightened and his expression turned feral. "She's not here," he grated. "Unless you're a complete idiot, you ought to know that women don't usually come running back to guys who are forced to declare their love on live television. So if you'll excuse me," his voice was savage, "my noodles are burning." And he slammed the door in Harris's face.

"Well," huffed Harris.

------------------------

"Here," Minako said, handing the queen a cup of Makoto's best tea. Serenity was pale against her pillows, her eyes red and wet with crying. She looked haggard and broken.

Serenity sat up a little to accept the cup. "The people hate me, Minako," she said after a few slow sips. She was staring over the rim of her cup as if she could still see the faces in the crowd.

"They don't know you," Minako replied, her voice soft and gentle. "They're just scared, is all." She gave a tight, tired smile. "Besides, they're too busy hating me."

"Let's not get into a Who's Hated More contest, please," said Rei, coming in with the little princess. "I could swim in all the self-pity you two throw around."

"Rei," Minako hissed, a spark coming to her eye that Rei was very glad to see, though she tried to hide it. Minako wasn't angry at her as a woman or as a friend but as a leader. She had just given Mars a silent command to lay off.

"Honey," said Serenity, sitting up and pulling the princess onto the bed with her, giving the first genuine smile she'd had all morning.

"Where's daddy?" asked the princess as she snuggled close to her mother.

"Working," the queen replied. "The people . . . aren't very happy right now. And daddy is working hard to make them happy again."

The princess played with the blanket for a minute, then looked up at her mother. "Are you sick?"

The queen laughed. "Maybe a little. But," she said, pulling her daughter close and hugging her tight, "I feel much better now that you're here."

"Small Lady wanted to come by before her lessons and see you," Rei said, waiting for the little princess to join her.

"Well, I'm always happy to see her." Serenity kissed her daughter on the cheek and let her go. She watched Rei and the princess leave the room. After a moment, she picked up her tea again and held it but didn't drink it. "There's something I've wanted to talk to you about, Mina-chan."

The blonde continued to fluff pillows, but her movements had become deliberate and she kept her eyes on what she was doing. "Yes?"

"Why," said the queen, gentle and a bit sad, but not angry, "couldn't you stay here after that poor policeman died? You know that we love you. And we know that it was an accident."

Minako sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the carpet. "For that," she said simply. "Here, he's only 'that policeman.' But I liked him," she said, meeting Serenity's eyes and seeing full, total acceptance and love, no matter what she said. She looked away. "I mean, I wasn't in love with him or anything, but he was a person to me. And I needed to be around someone who knew him, who could hate me or forgive me. I needed to hear it from someone who cared about him, that what I had done was a mistake." She took a deep breath and let it out. "Or, possibly, that it wasn't."

"And did you find that?" Serenity asked after an extended pause.

Minako nodded. "Yes."

"Then I'm glad." The queen reached forward and drew her senshi's face to her, kissing her on the forehead. As she did so, Minako looked at her own hands on the bedspread – and stiffened. "What is it?" Serenity asked.

"Nothing," Minako lied, standing up. "I just remembered I was supposed to see Ami about something." She gave a wan smile, but the queen accepted it.

"Of course."

In the hallway, Minako broke into a trot and then a run. She pulled out her phone and hit the blue button.

'_Hello._'

She didn't beat around the bush. "Where are you?"

'_Working with Zoicite. Why?_'

Minako shut her phone and went straight to the research room. Ami was just coming out to look for her, and she grabbed the other woman and pulled her aside into an unoccupied room. "I lost it."

"Yes, you have," Ami agreed, rubbing her arm where Minako had gripped it.

"No, I lost the _sword_," she hissed, holding up her wrist. At all times in the past, there had been a silvery bracelet on it – but now it was bare. "The crystal sword?" she clarified as Ami just stared, her eyes wide. "The magical, mystical, leadership slash-n-stab doohickey?"

Ami gave her a look that was not amused. "I know what it is," she said, shaking her head. "How could you _lose _it?" Then she got out her handheld super-computer and started typing away.

Minako paced for about a minute until Ami said "I've got it."

The blonde pounced. "Where, where?"

"You left it at an apartment building. Address look familiar?"

"Kunzite's place," Minako said, breathing easier. "It ought to be easy to find."

Ami shut her computer and put it away. "Don't you two need to talk, anyway? This would be a good time."

Minako stopped dancing. "Oh. Right."

"Don't tell me you can't handle a boy that likes you," Ami said, managing to smirk a little.

"Oh, don't _you_ give me love advice," Minako grumped. "Miss Ice Queen over here."

Ami was oddly silent and looking at her toes. Minako read her like an open book.

"You didn't," she gasped. "Zoicite?"

Ami looked up at her, alarmed. "Whatever you're thinking of, I probably didn't. But, yes, Zoicite."

"Oh, I'm so happy for you!" Minako threw her arms around Ami and cheered. She pulled back. "Do the others know?"

"Not yet," Ami said, blushing.

"I can't wait to tell them," Minako cried and hurried out of the room singing: "Ami and Zoicite sitting in a tree – K-I-S-S-I-N-G . . ."

"Mina-chan!" Ami complained from behind her, burning with embarrassment, then fled to the safety of the research room. She knew that any minute her friends would swoop in and, with sly smiles at Zoicite, bustle her out so they could get all the juicy details. But until then, she would enjoy his sanity.

"Something wrong?" he asked as she sat down.

"Not for you," she replied, but she couldn't help smiling. It was good to have Minako back to her old self. And, every now and then, it was good to have crazy friends.


End file.
